Semi-Functional
by Momma Duck
Summary: Before this mess, Alex Drake lived to cause trouble. But when she breaks a teacher's nose to protect a certain tiny brunette, she's thrown into a shitstorm of sinister motives, violent attacks, and revelations that have her quaking in the badass boots her mother bought her. Luckily, she has Aria at her side, and she's willing to do anything to keep it that way. AU/Strong T/Arlex
1. Grand Theft Alex

**WARNING: THIS STORY WILL BE STRONG T. It's nothing too bad, but I imagine non-psycho Alex to be made up of dick jokes, eyeliner, and aggression. So if you've gone to middle school, you'll be fine (but still read at your own discretion, I'm not trying to taint young minds or anything) Also some usage of f*ck and other curses, though not excessive (I think...)**

* * *

Honestly, it was the most artistic thing she'd ever seen.

Her pen was nearly out of ink, but she was bordering on creating the most famous, risqué artwork ever. It was a circle here, a circle there. A _loooong_ cylinder in the middle. A few more detail lines… maybe some droplets coming out of the end….

 _Wow_ , she mused in her head. _That's pretty damn realistic._

She'd done it.

Alex Drake had successfully defiled page 143 of her calculus textbook with a drawing of male genitalia. It was perfect.

She glanced up from her art, now bored with her project completed, and her eyes immediately darted to the clock hanging on the wall. Seconds ticked by so _painfully_ slow but, as it turned out, she still had thirty minutes of detention left. Which meant she'd spent the first thirty minutes drawing a penis. Still, the drawing was good enough that she'd definitely have to get Aria's expert opinion.

It really did belong in a museum.

But she didn't have time to dwell. What she really needed was a ticket out of this cesspool. Glancing around, perhaps for an accomplice, Alex feigned a stretch, if only so she didn't look so suspicious.

Two idiots were throwing wadded up balls of paper at each other. One girl was neck-deep in homework and reminded Alex of her sister a little bit (except Spencer had never gotten detention a day in her life). Another kid was doing a sudoku and blowing the occasional bubble with his chewing gum. And up front, sitting behind the heavy metal desk with his feet propped up, the teacher monitoring detention was drooling all down himself, his phone slowly beginning to slip from his limp hand.

A plan formed in Alex's mind. It was almost astonishingly simple. She grabbed her textbook, pocketed her pen, and strode toward the door. No one spared her a glance. She even stopped to see if the monitor would notice, but he only let out a short, strangled snore. Poor guy would probably need a new phone _and_ a sleep apnea test. She really felt sorry for him.

But she no longer felt sorry for herself. Alex practically skipped out of there and jogged through the deserted halls, nearly taking out a janitor as she skidded around a corner. She made a beeline for her locker and yanked hard on the lock to open it—a trick she'd learned her first day of freshman year upon discovering the stupid thing was broken. She dumped her textbook inside and grabbed her backpack, slinging it onto her shoulder. Then she took off.

There was actually no reason to hurry. If she was going to get caught it would be by a camera, not any snitches lingering on campus. All the people that would care she was ditching were on their way home or too busy with their own stuff. She probably _would_ get busted—maybe called into Hackett's office tomorrow during class—but another day of detention wouldn't kill her. So she only ran because you absolutely couldn't do that during school hours. It was a special kind of freedom.

Alex headed for the double doors out to the practice fields, happily shouldering out of Rosewood High. She took a moment to imitate the ending of _The Shawshank Redemption_ , even though the sky was a nice blue speckled with puffy white clouds, and she had literally just walked out of her respective "prison". Still, it felt good to throw up her arms in victory and feel the warmth of the sun on her face.

Everywhere else was fairly covered, so… she took what little sunlight she got. Her usual uniform of shredded jeans and off-shoulder tops allowed for the occasional light tan-age—which was nice, she supposed, but she'd be damned if she spent any unnecessary time in the sun. That was Spencer's job. _And_ Charlotte's, though their eldest sister preferred a boutique as a place of habitation and only sunbathed to get a beach-ready body or whatever.

If she was going to sweat, Alex preferred slamming her trainer into a mat while doing so. Fuck the outdoors.

Even as she made her way to where field hockey practice was going on, Alex could feel her mood getting worse—and her hair getting all gross. She dragged a hand through the front of it and pulled the rest of the sweaty locks over one shoulder as she walked.

It felt kind of cool to be walking through an empty parking lot, the sun beating down, and her steel-toed leather boots crunching against pavement. She felt like a badass. Admittedly, a badass whose mother bought her these boots cause she really begged for them around Christmas time, but a badass nonetheless.

And it felt infinitely cooler when she cut underneath the bleachers to reach her destination. But all that coolness died inside of her as the harsh shriek of a coach's whistle nearly bursted her eardrums.

"Jesus _fucking_ Christ," she muttered, ducking back into the sunlight and onto the field. She stood on the sidelines and watched a moment, spotting her sister booking her scrawny self across the grass. She chuckled a bit, but then thought about it.

Alex swore under her breath again. She _really_ needed to work on the petty insults she aimed at Spencer. They were the exact same amount of awkward proportions and gangly limbs and poorly-endowed assets. They acted so different sometimes Alex kind of forgot they were twins.

Maybe she should start pointing out her sister's better qualities (mainly to boost her own self esteem, though Spencer didn't need to know that), but… well, what would the fun in that be? Complimenting people was hard, especially when they were literally yourself. And, while Spencer may have occasionally utterly loathed Alex for her heckling, she had no choice but to love family.

Spencer gave her shit too, anyway. It was all in good fun, but _still_.

Snapping out of her rare moment of introspective thought, Alex proceeded with her original plan. A few paces away, resting on the benches lining the field, sat Spencer's Rosewood Sharks duffle bag. The bag was in plain view of the players, but Alex wasn't trying to be sneaky. She rifled through it until she found her sister's keys—and a spare granola bar with chocolate chips in it, which she pocketed—then zipped up the bag, mission accomplished.

"Alex!"

Her head snapped upward and she caught sight of Spencer, smack in the middle of running suicides. Her sister had her arms thrown up in question and her face screamed infuriation, so Alex responded with a cordial wave and a middle finger. Then she sauntered back to the parking lot to their shared Toyota Highlander, waving the key fob around until she managed to unlock the thing.

Slipping into the driver's seat, Alex jabbed the START button with her thumb, turned the radio off of the news station Spencer always insisted they listen to on the way to school in the mornings, and pulled out her cell phone.

"Hey, Toblerone," she greeted, as her sister's boyfriend's quiet voice came through the speaker.

" _Alex,_ " he responded, and she could practically hear him roll his eyes at the nickname. " _What's up?_ "

"Can you pick our beloved Spencer up from field hockey practice? I'm stealing the car."

" _Oh, again? Does this require me having 911 on speed dial, because the last time you did this–_ "

"Everything's fine. I just ditched detention and didn't want to wait. And it's not like last time, trust me. I've avoided large doses of Hanna and alcohol together ever since."

He chuckled. " _That's good to hear. Yeah, I can make it. I just finished up at a landscaping job, so it's perfect timing. I'll be there._ "

"Thanks. You're the best brother-in-law ever."

" _Spencer and I aren't–_ "

"You will be. You two are sickening." Alex grinned. "All I hear about is ' _Toby this and Toby that and oh his truck is so sexy and he has the greatest muscles and he's such a sweetheart_ '. And she doodles _Mrs. Spencer Cavanaugh_ inside of little hearts in all her notebooks. It's disgusting."

Toby was silent a long moment. Then he spoke, voice hoarse and innocent. It was actually kind of sweet. " _Really_?"

"Oh, absolutely." _Not_. Spencer only talked up Toby when Alex asked how they were doing, and she probably actually doodled something equally lame but less embarrassing, like Shakespeare characters or something. But this was all in the effort to make it too awkward for them to stop and makeout on the way home. A long time ago, Alex had taken it upon herself to be a nuisance to her sister.

This included cockblocking.

" _But are you sure we're talking about the same Spencer?_ "

 _Damn it._ She decided to leave him wondering, and hung up with a coy, "bye, Toby."

Another accomplished mission. She was on a roll today.

Buckling her seatbelt and checking the mirrors (she was a badass, but her mother insisted they drive safely based on how many stupid car accidents Charlotte had gotten into growing up), Alex pulled out of the parking lot. She remembered the granola bar she stole from Spencer's bag and snacked on it on her drive home, cranked up music with heavy bass, slid on the cool pair of aviator sunglasses Emily lent her, and enjoyed the ride. The AC was blasting a cold breeze, which Spencer always nagged her about because it wasted gas or whatever, but hey, Spencer wasn't here, was she?

When Alex got home, she winced at the sight of her sister's car in the driveway. Their mother wasn't home yet, so there wouldn't be any unpleasant lecturing, but Alex just knew Charlotte would have questions.

Maybe she could sneak into her room through the window? But it wasn't worth the effort, really. She'd have to climb a tree and all, and she really wasn't up for leaves in her hair today. It would be easier to just dodge questions and attempt to swear Charlotte to secrecy.

"Why are you home so early? And where's Spencer?" Charlotte was sat on the couch, feasting on a bag of butterscotch candies and watching some trashy reality tv show.

Alex huffed a long sigh. She hadn't even gotten all the way through the front door yet. "They sent me home early from detention," she bit out, in a sarcastic tone. "I'm too angelic to be there, it turns out."

"Yeah, I smell bullshit," quipped her older sister. "You ducked out, didn't you?"

"Yes." Giving up completely, Alex sat on the back of the couch and then flipped over beside her sister. Upside down, blood rushing to her head, she watched the spray-tanned couple on the screen arguing over something, and waited for Charlotte to say something.

"I'm not going to tell mom, if that's what you're thinking."

Well that was surprising. Not that her sister was a snitch, but Alex figured she wouldn't exactly be on her side. Charlotte was a reformed delinquent, she had every sort of mistake under her belt and her record was far from spotless—from juvie to rehab to Radley—and she didn't like to see her younger sisters going down a similar path that she had once upon a time. Spencer and Alex had heard the words "try to stay out of trouble" several thousand times, and that was the opposite of what Alex usually did.

"Thanks."

"Just don't do it again, Lex."

A beat passed. "So… can I have a butterscotch?"

Charlotte popped one in her mouth and grinned. "Nope."

Alex sighed, then rolled off the couch and upright. "Well I'm getting food. Want anything besides candy, you sugar addict?"

"I'm fine."

Shuffling toward the kitchen and to the refrigerator, Alex pulled out the chocolate milk and drank straight from the carton. (They only bought it for her and Charlotte, because they drank it like water. Spencer and their mother opted for actual water). Then she searched the cabinets for something appetizing.

Upon finding nothing to suit her cravings, she went back to the living room and sidled up to the couch. "Can I have twenty bucks?"

Charlotte shot her a skeptical look. "Why?"

"I want pizza."

Her sister shrugged, then went back to watching her show. "Purse is on the counter. Knock yourself out."

Alex practically bounced over to retrieve the cash, then whipped out her cellphone to call for delivery. Fingers hovering over the keys, she smirked.

"Can I get a stripper, too?" she called into the living room, and Charlotte bursted out laughing.

" _Yes_ , definitely. But no. Mom will be home in an hour."

"Oh come on, nothing goes with pizza quite like assless chaps." Alex dialed the number for the pizza place. "Maybe I could cut a deal with the delivery guy?"

Charlotte's voice was choppy with laughter. "I _dare_ you to try it!"

Laughing too, Alex waited for the line to stop ringing. She couldn't keep a straight enough face to even begin to ask, so just ended up ordering the pizza. Too bad, she might've been surprised at the response.

She sat with Charlotte on the couch for a little bit, occasionally commenting on the tv show and attempting to (unsuccessfully) sneak a butterscotch, until four o'clock rolled around. They were debating if Spencer or the pizza guy would get there first, and at 4:06, the front door flung open with a _thud._

They both flinched.

"Alex!" Spencer dumped her bag by the door, and Alex could practically _feel_ her anger. "What the hell?!"

Alex cast a frightened look at Charlotte, and her older sister shrugged at her, as casual as can be but smiling in that smug way she had when Alex had dug herself into deep shit.

"So how's Toby's truck?" Alex steered her gaze to Spencer, raised her eyebrows suggestively. Maybe her twin wouldn't strangle her if she struck first and hard at the knees. Embarrassment was a real killer, man.

Spencer blushed furiously, but crossed her arms and straightened like a hardened military general, way better at psychological warfare than Alex. "It's _fine_. "Why did you steal the keys out of my bag?"

"So I could drive home." Alex lifted a shoulder in a half shrug, sheepish. If only it was acceptable to escape her problems with violence. She'd kick Spencer in the solar plexus, change her name and face, and board a plane to Australia.

"You had detention! Why were you driving home?!"

"I don't see why it's a problem. I called Toby for you."

"Yeah, thanks," spat Spencer. "What did you say to him this time? His face was red the entire ride. We said all of two words to each other."

"I said all good things."

Spencer rolled her eyes, deflating—apparently not willing to even try to get answers. Then she scooted to the couch and plopped herself on the middle cushion, head in her hands and elbows on her knees. This time the look Alex exchanged with Charlotte was concerned. Something was definitely wrong.

"You okay, Spence?" Alex nudged her, lightly.

Spencer rubbed at her face with the heels of her hands, then nodded, though it wasn't very convincing. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little stressed out."

"You're _always_ a little stressed out, Spencer. This is looking different. What's wrong?" said Charlotte, looping a comforting arm around Spencer's shoulders. "Is it Toby?"

"No. We're doing great." The more she talked, the more pitiful she sounded, maybe even on the verge of tears. And they'd only seen Spencer cry, like, three times. Even when she was a baby-though Alex wouldn't know because they were babies at the same time, y'know? But Spencer seemed like the silent "it's-so-quiet-is-it-dead?" type of baby, while Alex probably bashed people in the teeth with her rattle and screamed at everything. She'd have to ask Charlotte about it later.

"Is it because Lex is an idiot?" pressed Charlotte, voice gentle.

"Hey!" Alex cried in outrage, tuning back in. "I said I was sorry!"

Charlotte lifted an eyebrow. "No, you didn't."

Spencer snorted. "I'm used to that Alex being an idiot. This problem is much more complex."

"Well what is it?"

They waited with bated breath, curious to find out what this mysterious problem was, if only so they could fix it.

"Nothing." Spencer straightened up suddenly, wiping her eyes. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it." Then she slipped out of Charlotte's hug and marched upstairs, leaving them in a confused silence.

Alex looked at her older sister. "What the hell was that?"

"I dunno." The blonde shrugged, pursing her lips in thought, then she pointed at Alex with purpose. "But keep an eye on her, okay?"

"Aye, aye, captain."

The doorbell rang then, and Alex rose to retrieve the pizza. She tipped the guy generously, thoughts of strippers and detention long gone from her brain. There was something up with Spencer.

And maybe it was time to use her skill of mischief to do a little sleuthing.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello, folks. I'll admit right off the bat that I don't have a long-term plan for this story, but by golly I'm gonna make this one a multichapter! I would still be agonizing over plot details, sitting paralyzed at the keyboard, or maybe even in the process of burying away this idea forever if it weren't for KING011, who requested some more Arlex (Alexia?) and essentially inspired me to get the first chapter done. So thanks! (If anyone else wants to give me a swift kick in the pants for later chapters when I don't update fast enough, that'd be appreciated. Just shoot me a PM and call me a slow lard, and I'll try my hardest to write)**

 **As always, I hope you enjoyed. Please favorite, follow, review, and see you in about a week (hopefully...)**


	2. Not Today, Asshat

**Content Warning: Strong T. Dick jokes, F-bombs, and Fisticuffs, oh my!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Pretty Little Liars or anything else mentioned that I could get sued for, y'know?**

 **To answer a few things:**

 **WhyAreYouLaughing: The Hastings will come into the story eventually, but it'll probably be later on. I'm still working out the major plot points, so we'll see what happens….**

 **KING011: Alright, I feel a bit out of my league, but I'm gonna aim for a minimum of 25 chapters. I'm making no promises, but hopefully this goes well and I end up writing more than that anyway!**

 **So this chapter will include the rest of the girls and we'll have the introduction of our antagonist. If you just absolutely hate seeing Ezra portrayed negatively, please remove yourself from the premises. If you're fine with it or maybe hold contempt and/or a burning hatred for our dear predatory teacher, please read on….**

 **Also, here's a playlist on youtube that I got bored and made for our semi-functional protagonist:** **playlist?list=PLfEcPHeWR2SHoDGG46yCgZAeq9gDelswm**

 **And now we continue our saga...**

* * *

"So… about yesterday…" started Alex. She snuck a peek at Spencer, who gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were turning white. Otherwise, she watched the road with a flawless poker face, one Alex would be hard-pressed to imitate. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Spencer didn't flinch, not even blinking as she said, "No. Besides, I'm fine now."

"Okay." Alex let it drop. Subtlety wasn't her specialty, but she knew her sister's impenetrable defenses would activate if she hammered away for information. Maybe she'd catch their friends alone later to ask if they'd noticed anything. Or even a teacher, though most teachers didn't particularly like Alex.

The rest of the ride was uncharacteristically quiet, the buzz of the newscaster's voice creating a background noise that Alex found slightly unsettling, the air thick with the scent of Spencer's excessively large cup of black coffee. There was something else that weirded her out, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Call it twin intuition or whatever, but she had a feeling _something_ was definitely off with her sister, despite her insistence that she was fine.

The student parking lot was almost full by the time they pulled in, and realization hit Alex like a brick: they were running late.

They never ran late. Spencer was as anal as they come and loved getting to school early. She hadn't even mentioned that they were almost fifteen minutes off schedule.

Alex slid out of the car, boots clomping loudly onto the pavement, and went to grab her backpack before the doors locked. Then she waited, all the while noticing that her sister had parked perfectly straight. Spencer usually parked as crooked as Emily's sexuality, violently swung into spaces like Hanna entering a room with important gossip, too focused on doing algebra problems in her head to really care that the car looked like it was being driven by a drunk. Was it luck this time or… God, had her sister been replaced by a robot?

She let Spencer walk a few steps in front of her so she could figure this out. Same gait, same impeccable posture, same preppy outfit. Though it didn't take a genius to notice Spencer's socks were mismatched, and Alex felt the need to mention it. Socks were a harmless topic, right?

"Spence, you know you're wearing two different socks?"

Spencer paused mid-stride and looked down at her feet, like she hadn't even paid attention when dressing this morning. Then she continued on like it was nothing, shrugging. "So? _Your_ socks don't match fifty percent of the time."

" _I'm_ the bad influence that you _don't_ want to be like. I've seen your sock drawer, Spencer, it might as well be alphabetized."

"How do you alphabetize socks?"

Alex halted a moment, thinking about that, then she jogged to catch back up with her sister. "That's not the point. I'm saying you're practically immune to the washing machine eating your socks, but today you're ankles look like it's laundry day! _What_ is going on with you?"

"God, Alex, why is it a big deal? They're socks." She huffed, then took off ahead of Alex and disappeared into the crowd of kids.

Threat detected, defenses activated.

Damn it.

* * *

Lunch time rolled around, and by then Alex had given up trying to communicate with Spencer. In every class they had together, her sister would flat out ignore her, so it looked like she'd have to figure out what was up by other means.

She was sat at the group's usual outdoor table, picking at her food as she tried to come up with a plan. Alison and Hanna were talking about something or other. Emily was listening to them, glancing up from her homework occasionally to nod. Spencer hadn't shown up, which worked for Alex. That way she could see if any of them had noticed something.

"Lex?"

Alex nearly jumped out of her seat as a small hand rested on her shoulder. Aria—who'd been sitting beside her this whole time, who _always_ sat beside her. Of course.

"Jesus Christ, Bird, you scared the shit out of me."

The nickname was exclusive to their friendship, one nobody else was allowed to call her—even Spencer, but they had their Sparia thing. Alex had been calling Aria that since they'd become friends. She may or may not have looked up the meaning of the name (a total stalker move, but whatever) and concluded that "bird" was an apt comparison. A tiny, solo singer with her head in the clouds.

"I see that," said Aria, grinning. "You're really spacey today. Is it something with Spencer?"

Alex rubbed her forehead. This whole thing was starting to give her a headache. "Yeah. Notice she's absent from our humble lunchtime gathering?"

Aria nodded. "Yeah, I did. Hanna's misused two words, but Spencer hasn't popped up to correct her. It's weird. So where is she? What's up?"

"Probably sulking in the library. And that's what I'm trying to find out. But you know how Spencer is—it's like interrogating a porcupine. I tried asking her about her socks because they're all mismatched today, and now she won't even talk to me!"

"Socks?" questioned Aria, brow furrowing. "I didn't even notice. And Spencer's sock drawer is immaculate, that's so weird!"

" _Right_?" Alex threw up her hands for emphasis, then shook her head, frustrated. "You and Spencer talk about feelings and shit, don't you? Have you noticed anything? Has she said anything funny lately?"

Aria wrinkled her nose up in thought. It was really cute, and Alex had the sudden urge to just go ahead and kiss her right here and now. But she'd been pushing away those thoughts _forever_ and she could do it right now, when there were more important things to be worried about.

 _But Aria's single… she's been single for a while… maybe she likes me back–_

"Nope."

It was so sudden a response that Alex almost thought Aria was a mind-reader—in which case she'd go up to Look Out Point and throw herself into the abyss because, Christ, she'd had _sooo_ many unholy thoughts about her friend that it wasn't even funny.

And her mind was betraying her yet again, exposing her to her superpowered crush as her eyes drifted to Aria's lips and she wondered how they'd taste… and how soft they'd be and if she'd literally take Aria's breath away and maybe they'd never want to stop and clothes would start to come off and _holy hell_ Alex would die at all that beautiful pale skin and sweating was totally worth it if sex was involved and–

"Wait, yeah, actually. Spencer's been kind of on edge lately. I just thought it was because exams are coming up, though. Oh! And there's the time she..."

Alex's jaw hung loosely for a moment as she attempted to process what exactly Aria was saying. Something about Spencer, which probably meant Aria wasn't a mind-reader and hadn't heard her thoughts. _Thank fuck_.

Fuck. What a versatile word. So many uses. A swear, an _action_...

 _That's the last thing you should be worrying about right now, you dumbass._ _Pay attention_.

But she really wanted to grab Aria and–

" _Alex Drake to the office._ "

Alex sighed in relief as the intercom put a stop to her unsavory ruminations and cut Aria off. She pushed her tray into the middle of the table and stood, collecting her backpack from the floor. "Here. Someone eat my baby carrots. I gotta go."

For once in her lifetime, she'd be relieved to see Hackett's ugly mug, an excuse to get her mind off Aria's unfathomable beauty.

The empty halls were good for clearing her head, and Alex took her time to get to the front office so she could think. She had quite a few experiences under her belt when it came to sex. Was an expert on the topic, really, and could spew innuendo like her life depended on it. But she'd never really had cause to consider her _sexuality_. Everything she'd ever done was always with guys. _Yeah_ , she checked out other girls and could definitely drool over some of them, but that didn't mean she was gay, did it? Male butts were just as pleasing to the eye.

So what was that? Bi?

She'd ask her sister about it. Not Spencer—who was a bit of a prude and straight as a ruler anyway—but Charlotte. She'd accidentally witnessed plenty of girls and guys climb into Charlotte's window at night—and she could sometimes _hear_ what they got up to, but _ew_ , she didn't want to think about that—so she might know a few things. And her big sister was a guru on everything and anything anyway.

Yeah. Good plan.

She could've tried to sort through her jumbled mess of feelings for Aria, too, but no way were the halls long enough for that.

Vice Principal Hackett was going through a stack of papers with the glumest of looks on his face when she stepped through the door. He glanced up, seemingly getting a migraine as he laid eyes on her for what was probably the hundredth time this year. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in pure exhaustion. "Miss Drake, _why_ can't you be more like your sister and stay out of my office?"

"Well," she began, plopping down in the cushioned chair in front of his desk. "I'd love to answer that, but I'm not sure which sister you mean."

"Ah, yes, the elder of you three: The infamous Charlotte Drake. She sat in that chair more times than I'd like to remember."

"And now she's turned her life around. Which means there's hope. For me. And I'll get there eventually, which means there's no need for any sort of punishment." She started to push herself to her feet. "But good talk, Hackett–"

He pointed at her. " _Sit_. Down. I'm sorry, Alex, but I'm obligated to give you two more days of detention for skipping the last. Please try your best to stay put this time."

"Great! I will! So if that's all–"

"I'm _also_ obligated to call your mother, who might be interested in hearing about this."

Alex winced. Damn. She'd managed not to be a victim of homicide so far in her life, but there was no guarantee that record would last when her mother got a call from Hackett _again_.

"You can go now, but I hope I won't see you again for a while, Miss Drake," he said, with a pointed look. "Alright?"

Her shoulders slumped. "Yes, sir."

She shuffled out of the main office, unconsoled by the secretary's sympathetic glance and offer of a mint. Nancy was such a nice lady and all, but Alex really wasn't in the mood to return any smiles.

She took the mint, though.

* * *

"So you got _two_ more days of detention _and_ Hackett's calling your mom? Brutal." Alison pulled a folder out of her locker, flipped through it, and put it back.

Leaning against the locker beside her cousin's, Alex crossed her arms and watched a confused ant crawl across the floor tiles until it was crushed under the feet of people stampeding to escape the building. "Yeah. It really sucks."

"Well _my_ mom is planning to drag me to some dumb dinner party on Saturday. I know it's not really your scene, but Hanna's having a date night with Caleb and Spencer said she's busy, so it's just Em and Aria going. But Aria's worried she'll be a third wheel." Ali shot her a conspiratorial look, a smug smile on her lips. "You should come. You might get some alone time with her."

Alex pushed herself off the locker, lifting an eyebrow. "Alison Dilaurentis, what do you think you know?"

"I saw you being all slack-jawed at lunch—you looked like the walking definition of lovesick. Em and I were talking about it in chem. She thinks it's cute." Ali tucked a textbook under her arm and closed her locker door. "You'd look good together. And I think she might like you too."

They started to walk towards Emily's locker, where she was sliding the same textbook Ali had into her backpack.

"Hey, babe," said Alison, standing on tiptoe to peck Emily on the cheek. "Ready for our study date?"

The swimmer smiled, acknowledging Alex with a friendly nod and turning to return Alison's kiss. "Yeah, of course."

Ali raised up to Emily's ear then and whispered something that made her girlfriend's face flush red, and Alex concluded that they were probably going to be doing more than studying.

Lucky them.

"Can you two stop being gross a minute?" Alex cut in, after Alison had abandoned her book and looped her arms around Emily's neck, and the pair had been staring lustily into each other's eyes for several long seconds like this was the fucking prom. "I need to ask you something."

"What is it?" asked Em, visibly deflating as Ali slipped out of her embrace.

"Have you noticed anything weird about Spencer?" said Alex. "I mean, besides the fact that she wears too many ties?"

Emily shook her head, while Alison seemed to be thinking about it.

"She brushed me off earlier when I asked about the dinner party," said the blonde. "But otherwise, she seems like the usual uptight Spencer Drake we all know and love."

"Is everything okay?" added Em.

Alex sighed. "No, I don't think it is. She kind of had a mini breakdown on Charlotte and I yesterday and now she's avoiding me so I don't ask anymore questions. You said she told you she was busy on Saturday?"

Alison nodded. "Yeah. What do you think is up?"

"I have no idea, but I'm starting to think it's nothing good."

"Are you guys talking about Spencer?"

They all spun to face Hanna, who looked slightly irked.

"Yeah, why?" Alison lifted a brow.

"I just ran into her in the bathroom, and she was all jittery and nervous like she had something to hide."

Emily crossed her arms. "Did she talk to you?"

Hanna mirrored Emily's posture, shrugging. "She kept looking at her watch when I asked why she was M.I.A. at lunch and then ducked out of there awfully fast."

"At her watch? She doesn't have practice today or anything," said Alex. "Was she meeting somebody?"

"What like a drug deal?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "Hanna, it could literally be anything else."

Alison's head swiveled to look at Alex. "Toby, maybe?"

"You think she's pregnant?"

" _Hanna_!"

Hanna threw her hands up in defense. "What? I'm throwing out options!"

"She better not be." Alex looked to the heavens and sent a brief prayer to whoever was listening. "Our mom would kill her, bury her in the backyard, dig her up, and then kill her again. And then we'd both be dead!"

"Speaking of, don't you have to get to detention?" said Ali.

"Shit!" Alex cried. "I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

Everyone nodded, so she shoved through the lingering groups of kids and headed toward the room detention was in.

Turning a corner, her eyes landed on the junior English classroom, where a particular petite brunette was talking to Mr. Fitz. She was holding a paper, probably a bad grade she was hoping to get fixed or something, and she looked to be pleading. As Alex got closer, she noticed how close he was standing, how his hand _lingered_ on Aria's shoulder.

She'd never realized their English teacher was such a creep.

She waved at Aria as she passed, made sure she was okay. When she got a little further down the hall from them, she paused when she overheard Fitz hushed words.

"We can continue this in my classroom."

The door closed with a chilling _click_ and Alex spun on her heel. What was this guy's intent? He spoke with the cadence of a serial killer… and who closes the door to talk about a paper? The blinds were drawn, but she managed to peek through a tiny crack to see him sit Aria on the edge of his desk, looking at her like she was his whole world.

But his hands were holding both of her wrists, trapping her. He was saying something, though Alex couldn't tell what, and Aria shook her head hesitantly, recoiling away from him. He apparently took this as an invitation and pushed her further onto the desk, sliding a hand up Aria's thigh, his face twisting in a nasty, gleeful way that made Alex's blood boil.

She yanked open the door and made a beeline for him, vision clouding with red. Before she knew what she was doing, she had a fistful of fabric at the back of his collar and was yanking him off of Aria. He choked, twisting around and throwing a clumsy fist at her. She saw it coming and ducked away, but wasn't lucky enough to keep her grip on him.

He whirled around and glared at her, chest heaving and a cold look in his eyes. She felt sick at the way his lip curled like a predator when he sized her up, eyes raking down her body. "Miss Drake. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"What the _fuck_ are you doing, you sick bastard?"

"Miss Montgomery was just turning in an extra credit assignment. Now that I think about it, your grades aren't perfect either, Miss Drake." He chuckled, but there was a particular nastiness to his level tone. "Of course, I'd love to help you with that."

Her knuckles ached as they made contact with his face, and she heard the sickening _crunch_ of his nose breaking. He screamed, and she followed up with a knee to his groin, sending him sinking to the ground.

"Not today, asshat."

Aria dodged around his crumpled body as Alex reached out to take her hand.

"What the hell is going on in here?"

A couple of guys were rushing into the room to help Fitz to his feet, and his face became eerily calm, even as blood gushed over his lips and down his chin. "It's fine, it's fine," he was saying. "She just snapped."

Alex went for his throat. " _You liar_ –"

It was only when the meaty hands and buff arms of jocks pulled her off of Fitz did she realize that she'd played right into his hand. They were dragging her out of the room like she'd gone full-on psycho and—with a reputation like hers—they probably believed it.

Well shit.

"He's a fucking _pedophile_!" she screamed. "Let go of me, you pricks! I didn't do anything wrong!"

Even amidst all the chaos that had erupted, she had to hand it to him. Mr. Fitz was playing this perfectly, looking wide-eyed and wounded at the accusation. Consolatory hands patted his shoulder, handed him tissues to wipe the blood off his face.

And Aria, the real victim in all of this, was standing among the small group of curious passerby, unnoticed. Her eyes were red with tears, lips pressed together in an expression that nearly broke Alex's heart in two. It also made her want to castrate Fitz, but that was for another time. Right now she needed to convince everyone that she was calm.

She went slack in the restraining hands, let herself be surrendered over to the resource officer, who gripped her upper arm _hard_.

Then she was in Hackett's office again. Only this time she had ice on her knuckles and an officer watching her like a hawk. She'd explained the situation, but they'd listened to Fitz's take and believed him. Aria had attempted to come to her aid, though two teenager's words weren't much against the word of a reputable, scholarly man.

Her next stop was the back of a police car. It was highly unpleasant, but all she could do was try not to slide around on the hard plastic bench. The cuffs on her wrists kept cutting into her skin and her bandaged knuckles hurt like a bitch. It smelled faintly of urine and vomit in the backseat, and that mixed with the bite of antiseptic lingering on her skin was enough to make her eyes water. Oh, and someone had probably died right where she was sitting, yet the words " _Have Fun_ " were carelessly scrawled on the plexiglass barrier in sharpie, mocking her.

Alex was not, in fact, having any sort of fun whatsoever.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews last chapter! I have a feeling they'll be what helps keep the ball rolling with this story, so keep 'em coming :) And if you can't tell, I'm totally winging these chapters, but I've got a loose series of events in mind. Stick around to see what they are. :D**


	3. But Light! What Soft Through Yonder

**Content Warning: Strong T. Dick jokes, F-bombs, and Fisticuffs, oh my!**

 **A/N: So I just put the finishing touches on this chapter. Sorry it's a little late, I didn't have any energy to even think about writing. But I'm on the upswing now as it were, so woohoo! It's almost midnight right now and I didn't proofread because I need to sleep, so this is probably some shit writing. But I wanted to get it posted to end the wait.**

* * *

"Anger management? What the hell, I'm not even angry!"

" _Language_ ," chastised her mother, in her usual eerily calm voice. Their mother may not have been the most expressive of people, but her anger was terrifying. Never explosive but contained, something lurking beneath the surface that made you want to be on your best behavior just so you wouldn't have to find out what it was. Alex and Charlotte usually had selective hearing when it came to their mother, but _that voice_ was one they minded.

Probably because they liked being alive.

"And you may consider yourself lucky you don't have to go to court or—heaven forbid— _jail_ for this, Alexandra _Morgan_ Drake."

Alex winced at the use of her full name. She swore some passerby around them could sense her mother's cold fury by the way they avoided their tiny group. Or they'd heard about Alex bashing in a teacher's face and didn't want to be the next target. Either way, she could feel the eyes of the smartly dressed or uniformed folks heading in and out of the police station, and their stares made her feel like catching the next bus out of Rosewood. Small towns sucked, especially when the people were particularly fond of gossip.

"Yeah, Lex," said Charlotte, sliding her sunglasses on her face as they walked. "Juvie's not a place you want to be. It sucks."

"Yeah, but now I have to sit in a room full of people and talk about my feelings. Do I look like someone comfortable with that?"

Her mother lifted an eyebrow. "And nearly breaking your hand isn't uncomfortable?"

Alex shut up.

By the time they got to the car, Alex's mood was running low. Her mother and sister were debating what to make for dinner, while Alex was thinking about this anger management bullshit. Fitz was the one that needed punishment, but the intake officer had taken one look at her record compared with their English teacher's and he'd determined that she was just an angry, misguided delinquent. And on top of that—not that she really cared, but still—she was suspended from school for a week.

After an uncomfortable ride home, in which her mother kept shooting _looks_ at her in the rearview mirror, she bolted out of the car and into the house. Then, taking them two at a time, she skipped up the stairs. She passed Spencer's door on her way to her own bedroom, and could hear the _clickety-clack_ of computer keys, the furious scribble of pencil on paper, her sister's familiar frustrated sighs. What was her twin up to now?

Deciding to just ignore it and leave Spencer alone for once, Alex trudged into her bedroom. Her clothes smelled a little too much like the holding cell she'd sat in for three hours, so she kicked off her boots and peeled off her top and jeans. Then she threw on a baggy t-shirt and collapsed onto her bed, which was shoved into one corner and piled with blankets—a perfect nest of comfort to escape from such a stressful day.

It wasn't all bad, though. She was actually looking forward to that dinner party Alison had invited her to—if she was even allowed to attend at this point—and it was only a couple of days away. Some fancy food and time with her friends would be a treat after all this crap.

Her eyes lazily swept the rest of her bedroom, and she smiled at the familiarity. The posters littering the deep red walls—one a Union Jack flag for no reason whatsoever, inspired by the one on the back of Ferris Bueller's door (god, she loved that movie)—her guitar leaning in one corner and the punching bag she used for practice slumped in another, her desk piled not with homework or crafty stuff but random junk that she didn't know what to do with. Her floor was a minefield of junk food wrappers and rumpled clothes which, while not very visually appealing, made her feel protected in a weird way (because intruders were sure to trip and die in the mess). She spied a pie tin in a nearby pile and ogled the perfectly good apple pie in it. It was the kind of comfort food that was comforting to just look at, even if it'd been on the floor for… a week? Two? She didn't really know, but whatever.

Her stomach growled loudly. Irritating as it was to have to get back up, she hated going to sleep without dinner. So began fifteen minutes of trying to muster the willpower to get out of bed, a feat she was never prepared to accomplish at any point in time. But she succeeded in the end and plucked some fuzzy socks off of the floor to put on before padding back down the stairs. Her mother was pulling out various cooking necessities in the kitchen, but it looked far too healthy and like it would take far too long to be ready for consumption, so Alex went to the fridge for her leftover pizza.

After microwaving it and nabbing a can of soda, Alex bounded back upstairs and scarfed down her meal. Then she flopped onto her bed once again and fell asleep faster than she could form a coherent thought.

* * *

According to the painfully bright red numbers on her digital alarm clock, it was close to three in the morning when she woke up. Alex lifted her head from her pillow and scanned the darkness around her, reached her hand out to feel along the cool sheets beside her. Nothing.

Aria wasn't there.

It must've been a dream then—a damn good one—and it was so irritating that she'd had to come back to reality. But why exactly was that again?

She glanced at her nightstand. Her phone's screen was lit up, and she reached to check it out. By some weird coincidence it was the tiny brunette she'd just been dreaming of, and Alex wondered if that old superstition may have had some truth to it. The one that says someone appearing in your dreams means they're thinking about you.

The text was a simple, " _hey, u awake?_ " and Alex grinned to herself. She was now. Clumsily punching in Aria's number and hitting the dial button, Alex started to clear her throat when she remembered she was blessed with a husky voice.

And it was particularly sexy upon waking up.

"Hey," she said when Aria answered the phone. "You okay, Bird?"

Aria took a moment to sniffle, the answer obviously negative. " _I've been better. But I was actually worried about you. I guess you're not going to jail because of me?_ "

"None of this is your fault in the slightest," Alex insisted calmly. No way in hell was she going to let Aria feel bad about that creep coming on to her. She'd right this, even if it killed her. "And no, the intake officer just gave me a good talking to. Told my mom I had, like, repressed anger or something. I get to go to counseling now. So... yay, me."

" _Yay, you,_ " replied Aria, a smile in her voice. Then she yawned. " _Lex?_ "

"Yeah?"

" _I can't sleep. I keep thinking about… what might have happened if…_ " she trailed off, and Alex felt a painful lurch in her chest.

"I'm coming over then," she blurted, and sat up, suddenly alert, mind forming a plan of escape to get out of the house undetected. She'd need to snag the keys from Spencer again, and then make her way downstairs undetected.

" _It's late…_ " protested Aria, but she sounded unconvincing. " _And we have school tomorrow._ "

Alex tiptoed to her closet and pulled out a pair of sweatpants, yanking them on as silently as possible. "I'm suspended for a week. You're not, though, which is all the more reason you need your beauty sleep."

A slight huff, then Aria was agreeing. " _Alright_."

"I'll see you in a few, okay? I've got to Solid Snake my way into Spencer's room to steal the car keys."

" _Solid Snake?_ "

"He's a character that crawls around all stealthy-like." Alex smiled. "A tactical genius, if I ever saw one."

" _Is this from a movie?_ "

Alex paused. So much for the brownie points her sexy morning voice earned her. "A game. Err… a series of video games, to be exact."

Aria chuckled. " _And you make fun of Spencer for being a nerd._ "

"Only cool people play video games, Aria, I don't know what you're talking about."

" _Uh huh. Well don't let me hold you from your stealth mission. I'll see you, Alex._ "

"Right back at you, Bird."

They hung up, and Alex slid her bare feet into her boots. She'd kicked off her socks at some point during the night and didn't feel like looking for them on the floor. And getting new ones was just too much work.

As she creeped down the hall, Alex had the thought that maybe her boots weren't the most stealthy of footwear. But she felt so badass in them that she wanted to do somersaults down the hallway, so she didn't take them off.

Spencer's room was dark, silent, but her sister was having a fitful sleep. Papers were scattered on the floor, her laptop resting in the middle of it all. Otherwise, her twin's bedroom was the exact opposite of Alex's. Tidy and neat, trophies and blue ribbons displayed in plain view, and furniture arranged in a way that was really pleasing to the eye.

Her purse was sitting on her desk, so Alex tiptoed over to rifle through it. She found the keys in record time and made to leave, but tripped over something. It was Spencer's laptop. _Goddamnit._

The noise made Spencer stir, and Alex booked it out of there as fast as her legs could take her. She made it to the top of the stairs and sighed, deciding not to wait around to see if her sister was coming to explore. Alex had an urge to slide down the banister—but that wasn't very safe, now was it?—but ended up taking the steps two at a time. Out the door she went, and then she was hopping into the car.

The windows in Aria's house were dark, so Alex decided to cut through the yard. She searched around in the grass for a moment before plucking a tiny pebble off the ground and throwing it up at Aria's window. It bounced off the pane with a _plink_ , and it took Aria almost no time at all to get to the window.

She looked awfully beautiful tonight. Hair mussed, hazel eyes shining, pale skin looking like porcelain in the moonlight.

"I don't think I can get downstairs without waking my parents," Aria whisper-yelled. "Can you climb trees?"

"Yeah, I guess." Alex twisted her mouth as she studied said tree. There was a significant gap between the branches and the window, but she supposed it was better than nothing. She sighed, hoping she wouldn't fall and snap a bone or seven. "Anything for you, Aria," she muttered under her breath.

Bark scratched at her palms as she climbed, but her boots were surprisingly useful for the task, allowing her purchase with even the most awkward of foot angles. Even so, thank god for her upper body strength. Her arms pulled her up great lengths quickly, barely even trembling. By the time she reached window height, she had to take a breather and lean against the trunk. Aria had been watching her this whole time, and Alex really hoped she was impressed with her biceps.

"Enjoying the show?" she teased, shooting the shorter girl a wink.

Aria smiled, tilting her head. "Il admit, it's not bad. Though I'd like to see a little less Hulk and a little more Romeo."

Alex pressed a hand to her chest, tried to emulate Romeo's wistful essence. She couldn't really remember how that balcony scene went, though, so she winged it. " _But light! What soft through yonder window breaks?_ "

"Close. But no cigar," said Aria, leaning her elbows on the windowsill and her chin on her fists.

"Yeah, well… what do I look like? Spencer?"

"Yes, actually."

"Oh yeah."

Alex then prepared for her jump, gestured for Aria to step away from the window. "I'm doing this, Bird. Call 911 if I don't make it."

"Gotcha."

She took a few deep breaths, climbed just a tad higher, and lifted herself onto a thick branch so she was facing the window. Counting down from three in her head, green flag waving in her mind's eye, she leaped toward the open window.

There was a terrifying moment of freefall, but it lasted only a second before she slammed onto the windowsill. She scrambled to get a grip for a second, half inside Aria's bedroom, then Aria was helping to pull her inside. Her knees hit the built-in bench beneath the window first, then she was losing her balance and precariously tilting forward. She tumbled head first onto the rug, practically tackling Aria as she fell.

And then they were in quite the suggestive position.

Their bodies pressed together in a way that had Alex's heart flipping in her chest, but she had caught herself just in time to avoid crushing Aria beneath her. She couldn't help but stare at the face so close to her own. It was a perfect chance to just lean in and–

"So much for not waking up my parents. We probably woke the whole neighborhood."

"Eh," Alex shrugged. "I came here for one reason and one reason only."

Aria lifted a brow. "What's that?"

She couldn't resist it—she booped Aria on the nose. "I heard _someone_ couldn't sleep."

A beat passed as they both took in the other, grinning like idiots, and after staring too long, Alex's face flushed with warmth, a blush spreading across Aria's cheeks as well. Reluctantly, Alex picked herself up, extending a hand to Aria as she did so and helping her off the floor.

Aria didn't give her time to get settled in, instead wrapping her arms tightly around Alex. "Thank you. And I'm really sorry I got you in trouble."

"I told you—you did nothing wrong, Aria." Her muscles relaxed as she paused to inhale Aria's scent—books and flowery shampoo and oil paint. "Really."

They pulled away, and Aria went to flop on her bed. Alex kicked off her boots and made herself comfortable. She stretched a bit painfully—her ribs hadn't taken well to being slammed into the windowsill—and paced around Aria's room like she usually did, looking at things. Her room was so cozy, with dozens of knickknacks to see. Alex picked up Pigtunia and grinned.

"This thing is so weird. But I love it."

"It's pretty special. Well, you know my dad gave it to me."

Alex set the puppet carefully back in its place. "It's nice. Though I kind of hate Father's Day."

"Mary still hasn't told you who he is, huh?" Aria huffed in secondhand frustration.

"Nope. Apparently the bastard doesn't want us to know. I'm starting to think he doesn't actually exist…"

"Maybe. But how would you even be here if he didn't?"

"I guess Spencer and I just _poofed_ into existence." Alex sighed and turned back to face Aria. "Anyway. About Saturday. Are you still going to that dinner party with Ali and Em?"

Aria shrugged. "I dunno. It might be pretty boring."

Sauntering over and plopping down beside Aria, Alex nudged her with an elbow. "Weeelll… my dear cousin told me about the third wheel problem, and asked if I'd like to come. So would you want to be _my_ date?" She swallowed her nerves, even though this wasn't a _date_ date.

Aria's head whipped around to face her, a surprised look on her face. "That'd be great, Lex! What are we wearing?"

Alex tapped her chin in thought. " _You_ will be wearing something amazing, and _I_ will be sporting something entirely too uncomfortable for me, with bandaged knuckles as an accessory. I hope you don't mind."

"Sounds perfect."

Eventually, they were laying side by side, staring up at Aria's slanted ceiling. They were just talking. Talking about anything and everything until both of them were exhausted. And finally Aria was silent, her breaths leveling out. Alex wanted to fall asleep right there beside her, wrap her up in an embrace and be there when she awoke. Alas, her sister would need the car tomorrow anyway, and her mother would be suspicious if she wasn't in her bedroom in the morning.

Carefully, she slipped out of bed and found her boots. Then she pulled the blanket up to Aria's chin, leaned down to plant a kiss on her forehead. And back down the tree she went.

Once home, she opened her bedroom door as silently as possible, wincing with every stubborn creak. But she managed to shut the door with no interruption. She sighed, leaning her forehead against the back of the door, exhaustion pulsating in her bones. Back to sleep for her.

"Where'd you go?"

If she were a screamer, Alex would have shrieked like a banshee. But she wasn't, so she found herself spinning around and raising her fists. Her body took a second to catch up with her mind, and she relaxed as Spencer lifted a curious brow.

Her sister was perched on the edge of the bed, feet tapping impatiently and her hands clasped in front of her. She looked annoyed, and Alex wondered if she'd woken her up with that ruckus earlier.

"I was at Aria's because she couldn't sleep."

Spencer practically spasmed at the revelation for some reason unbeknownst to Alex, but then she shook her head to calm herself. "Oh. Actually, this kind of has to do with her."

Alex rolled her eyes. "What, Spencer? Can't this wait?"

"No, it's important. _Very_ important."

"So spit it out."

Spencer stood up and began to pace like she did when she was thinking. She still looked jittery and exuded hostility, but this was the first real conversation she'd had with Spencer all day.

Her twin paused, letting the words fall so ungracefully out of her mouth. "I think… I think Aria is in trouble." Spencer ran a hand through her hair, turning to look at Alex with an urgency that, frankly, frightened her a little.

"I think we all are."

* * *

 **A/N: Dun. Dun. DUUNN. So Arlex has a "date" and Spencer's spilling her guts. What shall happen next?**

 **Anyway, names are hard. But I wanted Alex to have a middle name, so I did some Googling. If you're interested, here's my thought process when coming up with one (I spent way too long thinking about it):**

 **So I built off of Spencer's middle name: Jill. Jill is the female form of Julian, which means son of Jove. Jove is the Roman mythology god Jupiter. So from there I went with the theme of Pluto and Neptune, Jupiter's brothers. Pluto is associated with wealth. Neptune is associated with water. So Hades and Poseidon, respectively, in Greek mythology. And Jupiter would be Zeus. And it just so happens that Marie (Aria's middle name) means "sea of bitterness" or "lady of the sea" or something along those lines. So I went with water for Alex. Morgan means something like "sea defender", which is pretty freaking cool considering.**

 **Aannd... enough with the trivia.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always: favorite, follow, and review! Give me about two weeks to post the next chapter, just in case. :)**


	4. Revelations and Choking on Saliva

**Content Warning: Strong T. Dick jokes, F-bombs, and Fisticuffs, oh my! (I think this'll be the last time I mention it, so… you were warned...)**

 **A/N: It's three in the morning, but I woke up with an editing bug and managed to finish proof-reading this chapter. There's no harm in posting in now, right?**

* * *

"What do you mean Aria's in trouble?" questioned Alex, her spine going rigid. Was she going to have to go stand guard in the girl's room all night? She would, too, if it meant Aria was safe.

"I wasn't going to say anything yet; I had to be sure. But after your fistfight with Fitz, I'm pretty sure the circumstances have changed." Spencer paced back and forth as she spoke, arms crossed over her chest and her head tilted toward the ground. She was making a clean spot in Alex's floor, plowing through the clothes and food wrappers like a bulldozer. Alex wasn't complaining if it meant Spencer could clear the entire floor. She debated telling her to pace around the whole room, but decided Aria was more important at the moment.

"Alex… don't freak out… but I saw Fitz following Aria."

Alex chewed on this info a moment, her sleep-deprived brain trying to process exactly what "following" constituted. "So… what? Details, Spence."

"Right, right," Spencer ran a shaky hand through her hair. "Not just following her, but _following_ her. Stalking, almost. He had a camera, ducked out of the way when she would turn around. I was across the street just doing some homework in a cafe when I saw him for the first time. About a week ago. He was being pretty discreet about it, like he'd been doing this a long time, but I know what I saw, Al."

"I know what I saw, too. He definitely wasn't being a very nice guy," said Alex, gruffly. "The stalker motif fits."

There was something red and searing lighting up in Alex's chest, branding a tattoo over her heart. It seemed to be a lust for vengeance of a kind that she'd never felt before. This wasn't a need for a petty revenge plot—like saran-wrapping Spencer's doorway or shaving off her ex's eyebrows—but something violent and consequential. She wanted Fitz to pay for trying to hurt Aria. With jail time or blood, she wasn't sure yet. Maybe both, if she could get her hands on him before the cops.

"Did you follow him? See how far he followed her? If he followed anyone else? Met someone? Did you find out where he lives?" Alex crossed her arms over her chest, shifting her weight back and forth to each foot while attempting to think of something useful to ask. Her brain was on overload, and it could've been layered with cobwebs for all the help it was, so she looked to Spencer. " _Anything_ about him besides his name is Mr. Fitz, he teaches junior English, and has a penchant for stalking teenage girls?"

"He went straight home after following her for a while. I managed to get the building address. We'll have to snag a key or play on someone's sympathies to get in." Her sister was in full business mode now, and her bloodshot eyes took on an excited, alert quality reminiscent of a hard-boiled detective. It was the same look she got when they were younger—the one when she was about to force Alex to play their _Clue_ board game. Alex half expected her to roll out the " _It was Professor Plum, in the Dining Room, with the candlestick_ " line right on the spot, but no one had been murdered. Spencer was just thinking up ways to successfully break and enter. And that didn't have a cool line to go with it.

"And I got quite a lot of research done on him. What did you think I was doing in my room all day?"

Alex shrugged. "I dunno. Sulking? Reading the dictionary for fun? Something boring probably."

Spencer rolled her eyes. "I was trying to find out more about Fitz. There's not much. In fact, it's almost suspicious how little there is."

"Huh." Alex considered this a moment. "So… you want to find out more? Preferably by doing a little recon mission?"

That definitely got Spencer to light up.

"Yeah, of course," said her twin. "As long as you promise not to break anything."

Alex smirked as some nasty part of her imagined the glee that would come from destroying Fitz's apartment. "I'll try."

"Good." Spencer nodded. "We'll talk details tomorrow. Try to come up with a plan."

There was a lull as Alex agreed, and Spencer sobered a bit.

"Hey… I'm sorry I didn't say anything about this sooner. Before everything happened. But at least you're not locked up, right?"

Alex lifted an indifferent shoulder. "Right. But anger management is going to be a bitch to handle."

"Well, on the bright side, maybe it could do you some good," Spencer teased, a tad hesitant. "You are the one that flipped the coffee table over losing at _Need for Speed_. "

"First of all: when are you ever looking on the bright side of things? And second: anyone else would be pissed. You took twenty bucks from me that day, Spencer."

"You mean, I _won_ twenty bucks. It's not my fault you're horrible at racing games."

Alex's arms lifted slightly, helpless as she tried to produce a comeback. Then she slammed her palms back against her thighs, her sweatpants muffling the noise. "I'll have you know that I spent hours upon hours building my thumb strength and honing my driving skills. It's totally unfair that you won. And mom hated that table anyway."

"Al, you broke two of the legs off it and kicked in the glass. I don't think she hated it that much." Spencer moved past Alex toward the door, throwing a scoff over her shoulder. Alex could hear the grin in her voice. "And you call me a sore loser."

Rolling her eyes, Alex started to tell Spencer to just get out of her bedroom. It was late, she was pissed off at Fitz, her head was reeling with this new information, and her heart was still beating quick with the memory of Aria asleep at her side. She wished she could've stayed there beside her and forgot about the world for a little while longer, but right now Alex was just happy to have a bed to collapse in.

Only she paused on her way to throw herself onto it and wheeled back around. "Hey, Spence?"

Spencer turned, lifted a brow. Her eyes looked so sleepless, her posture utterly exhausted. But she looked more relaxed, more certain than Alex had seen her recently. Maybe getting things off her chest had helped. "Yeah?"

It wasn't characteristic of her, but Alex found herself moving forward to wrap her arms around her sister. Neither of them were touchy-feely types of people—in fact, no one in their family was—but it was nice to see Spencer recollecting herself. And after all that had happened, Alex could use a good hug too. So she held on tight, practically lifting her twin off the ground, and Spencer snorted as she returned the embrace.

"You gonna be alright, Al?"

"Yeah, maybe," Alex mumbled. "I'm glad you're okay, Spence."

"Well, I won't be long if you crush my rib cage."

A mischievous grin blossomed on Alex's face, and she doubled the crushing power of her hug, lifting her twin off the floor with some effort and spinning them. "Oh, but I looove you sooo much, Spencer!"

"Please put me down." Her sister's arms flapped helplessly as she struggled, and Alex complied—if only to avoid breaking her own back. Spencer sighed dramatically as her toes touched the floor again. "I'm starting to think you're actually trying to kill me, Alex."

Alex grinned. "It's annoying, isn't it?"

"Definitely."

"Good." Alex held on a second longer, then finally released Spencer, lightly shoving her backward by the shoulder. "Now get the hell out of my room."

"Fine. Jeez." Spencer held up her hands in a peacemaking gesture, returning her sister's joking smile, and tiptoed backwards out the door. "Goodnight, Alex."

"Night, Spencer," said Alex, closing her door quietly as her sister slipped into the hallway. She took in a few calming breaths a moment before flopping onto her bed and stretching out. Almost completely relaxed, she started when the door creaked open.

Spencer poked her head in. "Hey, did you say you were at Aria's?"

Alex groaned and dragged a hand down her face, annoyed. "Go away, Spencer."

"Were you?"

"Yes," grouched Alex. "Why does it matter?"

"Did anything… _happen_?"

"No!" said Alex firmly, finally turning her head in the direction of the door. "Why would you ask that?"

Spencer smirked. "No reason."

" _Leave._ " Alex pointed in the general direction of Spencer's bedroom.

Apparently obliging, Spencer closed the door. Then it was opening again, and Alex felt all her general contentedness turn to a burning, murderous rage.

" _Alex has got a cruh-ush_ ," sang Spencer, in a whisper.

Alex pushed herself upright, grabbed the nearest pillow and chucked it at the door. "You're going to fucking die if you don't go to bed, Spencer."

Finally— _finally_ —Spencer disappeared for good, a smug smile on her face as she pulled the door shut again. Alex shook her head as she listened to Spencer's footsteps recede down the hallway. She waited until she heard her sister's door click shut, then sunk into her mattress again.

Her mind wandered to Saturday, to something much easier to think about than mandatory anger management and reconnaissance missions and stalkers. The dinner party. What she'd wear, what Aria would wear. The food. The people. What might happen at this event.

Maybe the hosts wouldn't kick her out when they saw her. The word about her scuffle and subsequent sentencing would probably be spread all around town by then. And her wrapped up knuckles just confirmed the story.

But she had to remind herself that she was going with Aria on her arm. She'd make everything better, distract her from judging looks and snarky whispers, act as a buffer. Alex was going to try to have fun, even if she had to force it. Maybe she could even work up the courage to tell Aria how she felt. Who knew?

She smiled to herself at the thought, even as an unfamiliar nervousness bubbled up in her stomach. Things were definitely going to shit in almost every other area of Alex's life, but at least she had a decent chance with Aria.

* * *

In the morning, Alex was leaned in close to the bathroom mirror, applying her signature thick eyeliner. She didn't have anywhere important to go, really, since she was suspended from school, but Friday was her favorite day of the week. And Hanna had called her that morning to see if they could head to the mall at noon.

Lucky for Alex, Hanna didn't mind ditching. A large part of Alex's morning had been spent looking for something decent to wear to the dinner party. But half of her closet was laying all wrinkled on the floor and the other half wasn't acceptable in formal situations, and Hanna just so happened to be looking for something to wear on her date with Caleb. So off to Rosewood mall they went.

A sharp, sudden knock on the bathroom door had the tip of the eyeliner pencil skidding in a jagged arc across her temple, and she swore. "Yeah?"

"Is my phone in there?" called Charlotte's voice.

Alex glanced around the bathroom for any sign of her sister's phone, but couldn't spot it. "I don't see it anywhere."

"Can I come in and look?"

"Yep." Alex grabbed a makeup wipe to take care of the stray line on her face, and scowled at Charlotte as she cracked open the door. "You messed up my eyeliner."

"Boo-hoo." The older blonde went to work searching for the phone, looking under stray towels and random pairs of underwear, and rifling through baskets of cosmetics. "Jesus Christ, where is that stupid thing?"

Alex paused her eyelining to watch her sister tear up the bathroom. "Is it in your pocket?"

"Nope."

"Fall under your car seat?"

"No."

"Did you leave it in _your_ apartment?"

Charlotte sighed. "No, I checked all over the place."

"Did you sleep here last night?"

"I did not."

"I don't know what to tell you, then," said Alex. "Is it in the couch? Your old bedroom?"

"Help me look."

Begrudgingly, Alex abandoned her eyeliner and followed her sister down the hall. The air in Charlotte's old bedroom was still damp with morning dew, a fresh scent wafting through the open window their mother had no doubt cracked this morning. Birds chirped, a soft light was settled on the hardwood floor, and there wasn't a trace of dust to be found. The room looked like it hadn't been touched in a while, even though Charlotte occasionally spent the night. It looked far too childish for her sister, lacking the chic decor in her apartment. The walls were a light pink, the furniture a pure white, posters of obscure models and actors were plastered across the back of the door, and a few stray boxes were stacked in the corners, memorabilia stuffed inside.

Charlotte was already kneeling to look under the bed, so Alex wandered around in an attempt to look like she was actually searching. No phone seemed to be laying about that she could tell, but she had something more important tugging at her mind.

"How did you know you were bi?"

Alex winced at the sound of her sister's head smacking the bed frame, but she didn't have to look over her shoulder to know Charlotte was out from under the bed and staring at her.

"What?"

"How did you know that you liked guys _and_ girls?"

"Well…" Charlotte was quiet a moment. "I don't know. I never really thought too hard about it. I just… dated who I wanted to date, and sometimes that was a girl. Why?"

Alex studied an ornate jewelry box on her sister's dresser, pretending to be casual. "Just curious."

"Are you questioning?" She heard Charlotte sit down on the bed.

"Define "questioning"."

"Okaaay. Do you want to kiss girls?"

"There's one in particular, yeah."

"Uh huh. But you're also attracted to guys?"

Alex shrugged. "Sure."

"But you're not positive that you _like_ like girls?"

"Just the one so far."

" _Well,_ " huffed Charlotte, a bit forcefully. "Don't rush yourself with choosing any labels, that's all I can say—but, yeah, it sounds like you're questioning, Lex."

"Cool."

A silent beat passed. "So who's the lucky gal?"

Alex bit her lip, the answer popping to the forefront of her brain. She hesitated, but ultimately decided it wouldn't hurt to tell Charlotte. Her sister could keep a secret. "Umm… Aria."

"Montgomery?"

"How many other Arias do you know?" Alex turned to look at her sister and raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious at her answer.

Charlotte chuckled. "None. Just… wow, nice taste, sis. She's cute."

A bit bashfully, Alex nodded, and turned back to the jewelry box. "Yeah. Yeah, she is."

"Are you gonna go for it?"

"We have an unofficial date tomorrow. We're going to a dinner party with Ali and Em, and Aria didn't want to be a third wheel. So we're kind of going… together."

"Good luck." Charlotte sighed then, and Alex could hear her flop back onto the mattress. "You wanna know how my first fling with a girl went?"

Alex turned back around, shooting another curious look at her sister. She went to flop onto her stomach on the bed and propped her chin on her fists, attent. "What happened?"

"Well, she was in my AP English class in high school," said Charlotte, staring up at the ceiling. Her face scrunched up. "And I kind of hated her. But we got paired up on this project, right? And it turns out she was, like, uber _frustrated_. Things got heated real quick, one thing turned to another, and then we were dating like a week later. In secret—because she was worried about her parents finding out and stuff, and I didn't know what the hell it all meant for my own sexuality so I didn't want to officially come out or anything yet."

"Who was it?"

"Melissa Hastings."

If Alex had been drinking, she would have done a spit take. But she wasn't, so she basically just choked on her own saliva for a moment. "Really!?"

Charlotte laughed at her expression. "Yep."

" _That_ Melissa Hastings? You're temporary college roommate?"

"Luck can be a bitch. You know how awkward that was the first few nights?"

Alex gaped. " _That's_ why you moved back home so soon? Oh, my god. How did you two break up in the first place?"

"A few months after we got together, Mel— _Melissa_ somehow got another stick jammed up her ass. Kind of freaked out, didn't want anything to do with me anymore. It sucked. Can you blame me for not wanting my UPenn experience tainted with that?"

"No, actually." Alex thought a moment, shaking her head in wonderment. "Wow."

Charlotte nodded and continued her ceiling-fan gazing. A long moment passed in silence, until she said, "What were we doing?"

"Uh, looking for your phone?"

"Right." Her sister sat up and reoriented herself. "It's not under the bed."

Alex shrugged and sat up, too. "I didn't see it either."

Charlotte nodded toward the door. "Maybe it's in the living room?"

* * *

By noon, they'd found Charlotte's phone in between the couch's seat cushions, and then her sister had booked it out the door to get back to work before her lunch break was over. Alex had finished her makeup and then planted herself on the couch to watch TV, and was currently checking her phone for the occasional text from Hanna.

 _ **So we have a third party coming along. Hope u don't mind -H**_

 _ **Not really. Who is it? -A**_ typed Alex, thinking maybe it was one of their friends. She sat back and engrossed herself in _Gossip Girl_ once more, until her phone buzzed again.

 _ **Mona -H**_

Alex let out a loud sigh. It had to be her, didn't it? Did the universe think this shit was funny or something?

They weren't exactly mortal enemies, but Alex didn't particularly like Mona Vanderwaal. She was kind of a bitch. Nice enough, she supposed, but so was Alison. She liked and tolerated Ali because they were cousins, and because Alison was actually making an effort to be a better person for Emily's sake. Mona didn't have those special parameters and, besides, she reveled in bitchery like it fueled her life-source or something. Though Alex supposed being Hanna's friend counted for something. She'd have to play nice, but only if Mona did.

 _ **Cool. Can't wait. -A**_

Feeling vaguely disgusted that Mona was tagging along but mostly glad they were still going shopping, Alex set her phone aside. A few more minutes passed, and then there was a knock on the door that Alex went to answer.

Hanna stood there, stylish sunglasses perched on her face and her hand on her hip. "Ready, Lex?"

"Yeah." Alex peeked over the blonde's shoulder and spotted Mona in the passenger seat of Hanna's car. The petite brunette waggled her fingers and gave Alex a smirk.

This was going to be interesting.

* * *

 **A/N: So normal Spencer's back (mostly), I made Charlissa a thing that happened, and Mona has arrived to the party. Thanks to Boris Yeltsin for mentioning her, otherwise I may have forgotten to make her an element in this story… or not because how can one forget about Mona? And WhyAreYouLaughing, thank you for mentioning Melissa so I could be inspired to fulfill my crack ship wishes. They probably won't be big elements in the overall story, but they will be minor annoyances for Alex, which should be fun.**

 **I've got the main plot points all laid out now and am still feeling really confident about this story, so it should be smooth sailing from here. Still, give me two weeks to update. It's thunderstorm season and lightning has already managed to fry my internet modem once, so I'm low-key scared it'll happen again and delay things. Either way, I'll still try to update on time.**

 **Thanks for reading and see you next chapter!**


	5. Such a Casanova

**A/N: Alrighty, here's chapter 5. My WiFi's out again, but I parked my butt in a McDonald's booth with some french fries and a sweet tea to update this story. I'm officially committed to this thing, and I've got everything up to chapter 9 planned out so far. Anywho, thanks for sticking with me and I hope you enjoy the chapter! (It's not proofread, but I think it's decent, heh...)**

* * *

"Hello, Alex," said Mona, not even turning around to look at Alex as she slid into the backseat.

Alex glared hard at the headrest in front of her, attempting to burn a hole through it _and_ Mona's head. "Hello, Mona."

Hanna climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine, then they were on their way to the mall. They rode in uneasy silence for a little while, listening to the catchy pop song playing on the radio, until Mona spoke up.

"So how are things? I heard you were suspended." The girl hummed, a condescending noise that made Alex want to strangle her. "Well, the whole school did, actually. There are rumors you're locked up in Radley right now, for attacking Mr. Fitz." Finally, she turned and frowned at Alex, face full of pity. "Everyone thinks you went crazy."

"I'm not crazy." Alex looked out the window, unwilling to defend herself to Mona of all people. A stony silence dragged out, but apparently Mona didn't take the hint.

"So what really happened?"

Alex rolled her eyes as Mona arched a perfectly-plucked brow.

"Down girl," said Hanna. "I'm sure Lex had her reasons. Fitz was always a dick anyway."

Mona shrugged and turned back around.

Hanna caught Alex's eye in the rearview mirror. "So what flavor are we looking for in an outfit?"

"Something kind of sophisticated but not too much."

Mona butt in. "What's the occasion?"

"A dinner party," Alex ground out, _almost_ politely.

"With _Aria_ as your date," chimed Hanna. The blonde grinned. "It's about time."

Mona turned around again, eyebrows raised. "Oh, really? Well we need to find you something stunning then, if this is a date!"

"It's not a _date_ date," muttered Alex, blowing a strand of hair out of her face as she mentally cursed Hanna. _Traitor_. "We're just going together… as friends."

"Aw, that's too bad," mused Mona, offering a sympathetic pout.

"They're going to be more than just friends real soon."

"Hanna!" Alex cried.

The blonde shrugged. "It's just the truth. You two have been eyeing each other forever."

"We have not!"

"Don't deny it. You mentally undress Aria every time you look at her."

Alex felt heat rush to her face. "I do not!"

"You do."

" _No_ , I don't."

"You totally do," Hanna laughed. "Look, it's not my fault you want to get into Aria's pants—"

In a desperate attempt to shut Hanna up, Alex reached forward and smacked her on the shoulder. The blonde immediately reached back to retaliate, one hand on the wheel and the other attempting to slap Alex back. They swatted at each other for a while, until Mona reached over and steadied the wheel.

"Alright, none of us is getting into anyone else's pants again if we run off the road," said Mona. She winked at Alex, then looked at Hanna. "That includes Caleb, sweetie."

Hanna went red in the face.

Maybe Mona was tolerable.

* * *

Alex stepped out of the dressing room and padded over to where Mona was waiting on a bench. "Zipper?"

Mona nodded and Alex spun around, pulling her hair out of the way as Mona zipped up the back of her dress. "There you go."

"Thanks." Alex examined herself in the full-length mirrors nearby, twisting this way and that to get a good read on the dress. It was a simple, classy black, sleeveless with a high neckline. Your basic little black dress, something Alex had somehow managed to never own. Hanna had finally plucked it off a rack and shoved it at her after they'd spent nearly two hours browsing through different stores with no success. Clothes were hard, it turned out.

"That looks great," said Mona, even as she idly glanced down at her phone. "And it will work with whatever color Aria wears."

Alex rested a hand on her hip and studied her reflection intently. "Right. Black goes with everything. That's, like, a rule."

"Exactly." Hanna swept suddenly out of the dressing room beside the one Alex was using and did a twirl. "How do I look?"

Hanna's dress was much more complicated and sparkly than Alex's, and a little more risqué as well, since it was for a date with Caleb.

"Hot," chimed Alex and Mona in unison.

Hanna beamed. "Perfect!"

They both went back to their respective dressing rooms and changed into their regular clothes, then Alex was dragged out of the dressing rooms area of the store to pick out shoes.

By the time they were finished shopping, Alex's brain was jam-packed with more information about fashion than she ever wanted or needed to know, and she was glad when they stopped in the mall's food court for ice cream. Hers was chocolate sprinkled with chocolate chips and drizzled in chocolate syrup—a whole lotta chocolate, but she needed it.

Hanna scooped some of her cookie dough ice cream into her mouth and then pointed her plastic spoon at Mona's shopping bags. "What's all that for anyway, M?"

"Do I need a reason to treat myself?"

"Well… no," input Alex. "But you bought stuff that costs more than my entire closet."

Mona shrugged, absently moving her strawberry ice cream around it's little cup. "Like I said, I had a little extra cash and just wanted to treat myself."

Hanna didn't press further, though Alex was pretty curious where Mona had gotten that extra cash.

She didn't ask.

* * *

Rosewood Country Club was a pretty fancy place. Alex's heels clacked against the marble floor of the lobby as she walked, Aria following beside her, her fingers light as they held onto Alex's elbow. The shorter girl was craning her neck to look at the chandeliers dangling above, the expensive oil paintings on one of the walls, the well-dressed people milling about. Alex was finding it hard not to stop and stare as well. Her family had money, sure, but this was a little much.

Only Alison looked bored of it all, focused more on Emily than anything else. Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis were leading their little group, both dressed to the nines and exuding an intimidating, untouchable aura. Alex was a little scared of her aunt sometimes—the woman was downright unsettling, even though she shared a face with Alex's own mother. Their families had your typical occasional gatherings, but there was always a tension in the air when Mary and Jessica were in the same room, and her aunt was more than happy to ignore them all if given the opportunity.

(And she always gave Alex and Spencer socks for Christmas. Apparently there was some serious beef between Aunt Jessica and Alex's mother.)

"Now when we arrive, Alison, I want you to introduce yourself to as many people as you can," chirped Jessica. "Your father and I have potential clients here that we need to win over, so be on your best behavior."

"Yes, mother," bit out Alison, her eye roll practically audible.

They reached the entrance to a private banquet room and were greeted by the hosting couple. Peter and Veronica Hastings were lawyers, and, frankly, were a little scary in their perfection. Peter shook Kenneth's hand a bit stiffly, and Alex saw her uncle glare at the host as he shook Jessica's hand. She didn't know what that was about, but she had a feeling she didn't ever want to find out.

Instead she scoped out the room, the many elegant tablecloths draping the cluster of tables, the huge serving table of various foods Alex didn't know the name of. A significantly large crowd had already gathered and Alex occupied herself by searching the numerous faces of pampered people. She spotted Melissa mingling nearby, tried to see what her sister had seen in her, and she managed to earn a hateful glance from the woman—for staring or for being recognized as Charlotte's sister, Alex wasn't sure. But Charlotte was right, Melissa Hastings really did look like she had a stick up her ass.

"Welcome, welcome, good to see you," Peter was saying to the rest of their party when she tuned back in. He was smiling a fake smile that Alex immediately hated, though he did look awfully approachable to anyone unaware of his status. Except, when his eyes slid across Alex, his smile faltered. They locked gazes for a singular, strange moment, and he instantly looked like he hated her guts.

She'd never even met the man, how rude.

* * *

"Alex, I'm _booored_ ," whined Aria, quietly so as not to attract attention. They were sitting at one of the small round tables, picking at their leftover food and talking idly. Extremely boring-looking adults were all around them, schmoozing and ass-kissing and all of that nonsense, and Alex couldn't even pick out any familiar faces anymore. Alison and Emily had excused themselves from the table a long time ago, after having downed a few glasses of white wine. Alex had finished her second glass a while ago, in a desperate attempt to cultivate a bit of liquid courage, and Aria was still nursing her first glass. Things had slowed to a lull, and there was only so much food they could taste test to keep themselves occupied.

Alex had definitely enjoyed herself in that regard, but she saw now why Alison needed someone her age to tag along to these things. Dinner parties were mostly horrible, it turned out. At least with this crowd. And Alex had gotten more than a few stares this evening, many eyes training themselves on the gauze wrapping her knuckles, like she'd expected. But at least the novelty of her appearance had mostly worn off by now.

"You want to go explore this place?" questioned Alex. "I don't think anyone will notice we're gone."

Aria was already hopping to her feet and heading toward the doors, and Alex hurried to follow. She hung back a little to admire the loose, dark curls that fell down Aria's back and contrasted with the elegant red dress she wore, and smiled when Aria turned around to beckon her forward. They slipped without incident into the empty hallway, and then Aria was grabbing for her hand. Alex felt a little thrill flip her stomach as their fingers interlocked, and she had to remind herself that they weren't yet a couple. But if things went well in the next few minutes, that would change.

The rest of the country club was closed at this time of night, so they had no problem sneaking around. Aria held onto Alex's hand as they went through room after room, and the feeling was definitely making it difficult to think up a speech, not to mention the alcohol in her system. After numerous attempts at formulating a good love confession, Alex was left with the plan to just wing it.

As they passed a set of glass doors, Alex tugged Aria to a stop, deciding it was now or never. "Wait, let's go out here for a minute. For some fresh air."

The transparent double doors led out to a fairly small balcony. A few potted plants were gathered along either end of the floor near the railings, and there were a couple of cushioned chairs waiting to be occupied in the center of the floor, a tiny portable table between them bearing a stack of drink coasters. They had a nice view of the golf course and tennis courts, and because all of the floodlights were turned off, there were plenty of stars visible in the pitch dark sky. It was an almost magical little area, and Aria seemed to love it.

"I'd love to come read out here sometime," remarked the tiny brunette, leaning against the railing with a wistful look in her eye. "It's perfect."

Alex went to lean beside her, close enough that their shoulders were just barely touching. She gazed at Aria's profile for a long moment—admiring the cute button of her nose, the way her long, inky lashes momentarily tangled together as she blinked, how soft the dark waves of her hair looked as they brushed against her temples, and the little smile present on her lips as she stared up at the sky.

"You're perfect."

Before Alex could swat down such a cheesy line, it was slipping from between her lips and pricking at Aria's ears. The shorter girl turned to look at her, and all of a sudden Alex had to relearn how to breathe, something low in her stomach tightening so violently that it robbed her of all rational thought. It took her a moment to get her bearings, remember what she was going to do, and, numbly, she opened her mouth to release a clumsy string of words.

"I've been meaning to… to tell you… um… something and I… it's kind of… kind of hard to say… but… um–" _Smooth, Drake. Real smooth._ She mentally slapped herself, attempting to reclaim control of her stupid mouth before it did anymore damage, but it turned out that she was careening down a path of no return. "Well I, like, kind of… um, like you. Like, in a kind of… more than friends way. And, well… I was wondering if–if you wanted to go out… with me. Maybe."

To her relief, Aria was smiling, reaching to shove playfully at Alex's shoulder. "Go out with a Casanova like yourself? Are you kidding, I'd love to."

Alex blinked. She felt like she'd just woken up from a drunken blackout, and she wasn't sure she had heard correctly with her heart pounding so loudly in her ears. "Wait, really?"

"Yes, really." Aria nodded, rolling her eyes as she reached up to grab Alex's face and pull her down so their lips met.

The kiss was a bit clumsily at first, but finally instinct took over and the movements became as easy as breathing—something Alex vaguely realized that she hadn't done properly for a few minutes. But the oxygenless ache in her chest was blurred out by a pleasant humming in her veins, a burning hook in her gut that tugged her toward the girl whose painted fingernails were scraping lightly against her scalp. She obliged as Aria's fingers knotted in her hair and her tongue beckoned for entrance, and Alex felt her most primal of urges kick in as the kiss deepened. She moved them so that she could grab the railing with both hands, Aria's back pressing against it and Alex inching forward so their bodies were pressed flush together.

Aria felt so impossibly good that she didn't want to stop. She wanted to endlessly explore the talents of her mouth, map the curves of her skin, take note of every little noise she made in the back of her throat. She wanted to memorize everything—her touch, her smell, her taste…. _her_. And Aria seemed to be just as eager, fingers tugging at Alex's hair to pull her impossibly closer, her thigh lifting to create friction just where Alex needed it…

"Wait–" Alex broke their kiss and tried to catch her breath, leaning her forehead against Aria's to look her in the eye. "I want you. Just… _god…_ I really, really want you, Aria. Just not here, not yet. We should… we should wait until we're sure that this is going to work."

Aria looked up at her through those thick lashes, her hazel irises dark, intoxicating—a liquor that Alex wanted to drown in. "Who made that rule?"

"I just don't want you to regret anything, if…"

"I get it," Aria nodded, her hands disentangling themselves from Alex's hair, sliding down the back of her neck to scratch lightly at her nape. "But I don't think I'd regret anything with you."

"I'd hope not. I'm really glad you're with me, Bird." Alex leaned in for another lingering, if chaste, kiss.

They sat on the balcony for a while longer—Aria completely ignoring the second chair in favor of curling up on Alex's lap—until her newfound girlfriend informed Alex that she had to pee.

"Please don't do that here," she laughed, as Aria climbed to her feet and grabbed Alex's hand to pull her up too. "This is a really nice balcony and I'd hate for you to ruin it."

Aria swatted at her, then they went to find a bathroom. The country club was a big place, and Alex was lost within minutes as Aria led her through countless halls. Finally, they stumbled upon some out-of-the-way bathroom, and staggered to a stop as they swept through the door. Leaned against the counter, engaged in a heated kiss, was Mr. Hastings and Alex's aunt Jessica. And they seemed to be getting very handsy with each other.

They broke apart as Alex cleared her throat, startled, and scrambled to adjust themselves.

"What the hell are you doing here?" snapped Peter, aggressively straightening his tie.

Alex raised her hands in a peacemaking gesture, unconsciously stepping in front of Aria. She didn't like the furious look in that man's eye. "Um, I dunno, this is the women's restroom? What are _you_ doing in here?"

He didn't respond, instead scowling and leaning forward to whisper something in Mrs. DiLaurentis's ear. Then he turned and shoved past Alex and Aria to the door.

Jessica turned a hateful eye on them both after he left, and crossed her arms. Her lipstick was smudged and her hair was a mess, but she still somehow looked put together, her expression composed. "Alexandra, take Aria and go find Alison and Emily. I want you all to go to the car—we're leaving."

She gave Alex a look, one that very specifically said, _and keep your mouth shut._

* * *

 **A/N: I don't know about you, but there was a choir of angels singing in my head as I was writing the much-anticipated Arlex kiss. Hopefully, I can write a whole bunch and you guys'll get two chapters a week soon, so there's that. I'll still need a week or two to update until I get my internet situation straightened out, but I'll try not to be late. Thanks for reading, leave a review, and see you next time!**


	6. Spies Don't Typically Hunt For Chickpeas

**A/N: Well, I'm a few hours late, but here's chapter 6. It's a tad short, but I'm planning to post chapter 7 sometime before or on Wednesday, hopefully. So I hope you forgive me :)**

* * *

Monday morning, Alex was sitting in the passenger seat of the Toyota Highlander, her booted feet propped casually on the dashboard. Her twin was behind the wheel, but they were parked now, and Spencer was busy with watching the apartment building across the street… through binoculars. She didn't seem to think being discreet was a priority, apparently.

It wasn't really. Even though it was broad daylight, it was early Monday morning and there was almost nobody around to spot them. Most of all, Fitz was busy teaching, so they'd have plenty of time to go through his apartment. Spencer, for probably the first time in her life, called in sick so they could go all super spy, but Alex was getting fed up with all this waiting and watching.

"Can't we go in now?" asked Alex, boredly. "My boots are getting restless."

Spencer lowered her binoculars long enough to shoot Alex a confused look. "Your boots?"

"Yeah. My boots are ready to kick in the door."

"Al, you're not kicking in any doors," said Spencer, raising her binoculars again. "I have a lockpick set ready to go."

"Where the hell did you get a lockpick set? Aren't those like illegal or something?"

Spencer raised a nonchalant shoulder. "It's called the internet. Get with the times, Alex."

"I'm with the times. You're the one that reads the dictionary for fun." Alex slugged her sister on the arm.

Spencer rolled her eyes and rolled out her shoulder. "Well that just goes to show that I'm the brains and you're the brawn."

Trying not to take too much offense from that statement, Alex nodded. "Exactly. And when your puny lockpicks fail, I'll be there to kick in the door."

"They won't fail. This is a professional kit."

"Well let's go find out."

Before Spencer could stop her, Alex got out of the car and strode across the street. She slowed a little to let Spencer catch up, then they were at the panel of call buttons at the front doors. Spencer went to try the door in case it was unlocked, while Alex pressed down the line of buttons until someone answered.

"Yes?" came the voice of a woman, probably middle-aged and stuffy. Alex knew just the thing.

"Look, doll, I've got a special delivery for uh… a Ms. Philips?"

"Oh. What kind of delivery? A package?"

Alex put on her best smile, even though she was talking through an intercom. "Let's just say I've got fuzzy handcuffs and a–"

A hand clamped over her mouth, and Spencer shot her an incredulous look.

"A bouquet of flowers," her twin finished.

There was silence on the other end.

"Hmm. Well I'm game. Come on up."

The door clicked open.

Alex pulled Spencer's hand from her mouth. "Great. We're in."

"Why did that work?" Spencer threw up her hands, shaking her head in wonderment.

"Sex sells, Spence. Or hadn't you heard?" quipped Alex, slipping through the door. She poked her head back out to look at a befuddled Spencer and smirked. "Get with the times."

Spencer rolled her eyes and followed, letting out a sarcastic laugh. "Ha, ha."

As they climbed the stairs, Alex called up to Spencer, who had passed her with her superior calf muscles. "What apartment was it?"

"3B."

"You're sure?" she huffed. "We're not about to bust into some innocent stranger's apartment, are we?"

Spencer blew out a breath as they reached the third floor. "Yes, I'm sure. His mailing address was listed on the school's site."

They reached a hallway and found 3B, and Alex stood watch as Spencer went to work with her lockpicks. It took her a few minutes, but then there was a satisfying _click_ and they were able to slip inside.

"Wow," said Alex, looking around the room. "Stately, organized, flooded with signs of intelligence. Reminds me of your room, Spence. I hate it."

Spencer didn't comment, instead going over to look at the desk. She tapped at a typewriter, opened a drawer. Alex occupied herself with looking at the obscure art on the blue walls, the overflow of books. Aria might love this guy if he wasn't such a creep.

Alex opened the fridge, thought about helping herself to a soda, decided against it. Then she went through the cabinets. Most were jammed with your basics, except for a single cabinet, which only had one thing in it. Alex wrinkled her nose. "Gross. Chickpeas."

"Kitchen is free of anything suspicious," she called across the room to Spencer. "I'll check the bathroom for… um… bottles of rohypnol, I guess. Chloroform."

There wasn't any of that in the medicine cabinets, nor was there anything blatantly strange. Some antacids, pain killers, allergy medicine, prescription bottles for antibiotics and adderall. No dead bodies in the bathtub or torture tools on the towel rack. But when she lifted the lid to the toilet tank, she struck gold.

Submerged in plastic bags were a handgun, a few passports, and a thick stack of hundred dollar bills. Alex pulled out her phone, then lifted the objects out and took pictures of everything. Then she went back to Spencer, who was poring over something.

"Find anything?"

"Oh, nothing. Guy has an infection and ADHD, apparently, but that's about it," Alex shrugged. "Also there was a pistol, about $25,000 in cash, and a few fake passports in his toilet tank. But that's not suspicious in the slightest, right?"

Spencer's head whipped around. "Really?"

"Yeah, wonder what kind of infection it was."

"Be serious for a minute, Alex. Twenty-five _thousand_ in cash? Did you count it?"

Alex shrugged. "I didn't have to. That was a stack of hundreds. Guy's loaded."

Spencer got a puzzled look on her face. "Why would he put all that in the toilet tank? _You_ found it pretty easily."

"I'd like to think I'm an evil genius, thanks."

Spencer scoffed, turning back to the document on the desk before her. "Evil, maybe. Genius is questionable."

"I thought you said we were being serious."

"I was."

"You're such a bitch," quipped Alex, leaning over to look, too. "What'd you find?"

Spencer ran a finger down the page. Alex saw numbers, names, dates. "A check register. It was in a locked drawer, but I got in pretty easily."

"Take pictures yet?"

"Tons." Spencer showed her phone as evidence, then tapped a spot in the paper. "Look. He paid a few thousand dollars as a "donation" to Rosewood PD. And take a look at the date."

It was the day Alex was arrested. "Oh, shit. Is that why they didn't give a rat's ass when I told them the _truth_? This dick bribed a _police station_?!"

"Apparently. So don't trust the cops in this town, I guess."

"Yeah, no shit!"

They looked back to the register, eyes scanning until–

"M. Vanderwaal? Computer job?"

Spencer glanced over at her. "Mona?"

"I knew that bitch was shady. No wonder she had enough to pay for all that useless shit the other day—she's working for him!"

"Hold on, Al," said Spencer, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. "It just says 'computer job'. Maybe she just fixed something for him. Don't jump to any conclusions."

Alex rolled her eyes, scowling, but didn't make an effort to destroy anything. "Mona doesn't seem like the computer type. But 'don't judge a book', I guess."

"Not yet, at least." Spencer pointed again. "Here. Radley, too. A while back."

"A donation?"

They exchanged a look, then Spencer lifted a brow.

"You've got that meeting to go to today, right?"

Alex straightened up, grimacing at the thought of mandatory anger management. "Yeah."

"If you get a chance, look around. Try to find something, anything at all."

"Like what?"

"Like a reason Fitz would be donating to a sanitarium. Maybe there's someone he knows there? Family maybe?"

"Okay, I'll try. Can't make any promises I'll find anything. Maybe it's as simple as he does actually have a charitable bone in his body."

Spencer shrugged. "I doubt that."

* * *

Alex sat in a hard plastic chair in a semicircle of other people who sat in equally hard and plastic chairs. They were in a former recreation room in Radley's basement, and the place was practically empty, save for a table with refreshments and the seven or so angry people around her. Everybody looked fairly normal, though, except for the guy facing them all. He looked like the textbook definition of a counselor. Or a hipster. Beard, suspenders, pants rolled up a bit at the ankles. He _was_ pretty cute, but Alex had a girlfriend now and wouldn't pay any attention to anything below his neck.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Kevin, your group leader," began the guy, Kevin, standing up. "We have a couple new faces here today. Timothy–", a balding man of about forty waved as Kevin pointed to him. "And Alex."

Alex nodded.

"Nobody is obligated to share," continued Kevin, "but please try to listen to what I and everyone else is saying. It might turn out to be useful for you in day to day life."

Having heard enough already, Alex tuned him out.

An hour later, the class was dismissed, and Alex slipped out of the line of people shuffling toward the exits. She picked a random hall to go down, acting casual until she was out of sight. Radley's basement was a dreary place, but there were at least a few fluorescent lights flickering overhead. Otherwise, she may have had to come back with a flashlight.

Her eyes caught on a plaque beside a door labeled _Storage_ , but a hand dropped on her shoulder before she could make a move toward it. It was Kevin.

"Hey. Alex, right? Exit is this way."

 _Damn it, Kevin_.

* * *

Later that evening, Alex scarfed down the last of her dinner as her mother and Spencer talked. Occasionally, they all sat at the table to have dinner together, and tonight was one of those nights. Her mother's eyes swung toward her next, curious and unreadable.

"Alex, how was the meeting?"

Swallowing her food, Alex took a moment to consider her answer. _Boring. Soul-sucking. A bust espionage-wise._ But finally, she settled on, "fine. Learned breathing exercises."

"Interesting. I hope you decide to put those to good use. Anything else new?"

"Alex has got a girlfriend…" muttered Spencer, smirking.

Alex chucked a piece of sautéed broccoli at her.

Her mother's brow lifted as she dabbed primly at her mouth with a napkin. She was smiling like she'd been let in on a secret.

Aria and Alex weren't exactly being secretive, but they hadn't really hung out together at the Drake household yet. Of course, if Spencer knew, so did the rest of their group, but parents were another thing entirely. Alex was getting to it... eventually. It was hard, kind of. And Spencer was an asshole.

"Oh, really? You don't have to tell me anything, Alex. I remember how it is to be young and in love. Just be careful who you let in."

"You have three daughters with a missing father," snapped Alex, annoyance turning quickly to anger. Maybe she actually did need those breathing techniques. "I take it you're an example of what happens if I don't?"

Mary sighed, setting down her silverware with a chilling _clank_. "There are some things that you haven't the experience to understand, Alexandra. There are certain situations–"

"Yeah, yeah. 'Certain situations that can never turn out perfect.' I get it. " She stood up and went to the kitchen to drop her plate in the sink, listening as Spencer made up an excuse about her stomach. Alex bounded up the stairs to her bedroom, not waiting for her twin, and threw herself on her bed.

A minute later, Spencer stepped in.

"Mom is right, you know," she said, folding her arms and leaning against the door frame. "Whatever happened with our dad, it's in the past."

"You can't say it doesn't bother you, though. At least a little."

Spencer shrugged. "Well yeah, I guess it does. I have questions. But it's not like our mother is an open book. And Charlotte doesn't know anything either. Better not to think about it."

"That's my strategy, but it's not exactly working." Alex sighed, dragging her hands down her face. "But whatever. Not to change the subject, but I'm changing the subject. About snooping around Radley: I didn't find anything. I got caught before I even started."

"Keep trying. We might be onto something important."

All of a sudden, a series of knocks came from downstairs. Spencer went to investigate, and Alex followed, thinking it might be Aria or something. It was pretty late after all. They paused on the landing as their mother answered the door, and Alex yanked Spencer into a crouch when they saw who the unexpected guest was.

"What is it?"

"It's Peter Hastings, that's what!" hissed Alex. "I caught him sharing spit with our aunt Jessica at that dinner party."

Spencer's eyeballs almost fell out of her skull. "Seriously? What the hell is he doing here?"

"Nothing good, probably."

Downstairs, Peter looked furious. "Here," he spat, shoving a white envelope at their mother. "I added extra this time and I expect you to keep that little brat out of my business."

"What are you talking about, Peter?" questioned their mother, an edge to her voice that Alex had never heard before. It was downright scary.

"Your daughter happened across a _meeting_ I was having with Jessica. I hope she has enough sense to keep her mouth shut about it."

"Did you come here just to threaten a child, Peter? Or is this aimed at me?"

The man pointed at her, and from where she and Spencer were crouched, Alex could see a purple vein bulge in his forehead. "I'll be happy to keep _your_ secret, if your daughter can keep mine."

"I can't control everything she does." Their mother's voice lowered to a whisper, and Alex had to strain to hear it. "And she's _yours_ , too, Peter. Maybe if you extended a hand—to both of them—she'd be more willing to keep your dirty secrets."

 _Wait_.

Alex shook her head, suddenly feeling like she was underwater. Spencer grabbed her wrist, squeezed it, like she was steadying herself as well. They shared a confused look.

Peter Hastings was their _father_?

* * *

 **A/N: So there we go. I hope the Peter Dadstings reveal was pretty obvious. I hinted a little bit, but maybe you just assumed already. I've got more sneaky and nefarious reveals lined up anyway. And sorry there was no Aria this chapter, but she'll certainly make an appearance next time and definitely a lot more before this thing's over. Coming up, we'll see things start to heat up (I guess in more ways than one... heh...).**

 **Please favorite, follow, and leave a review! (Seriously, though, tell me what you think :D I need the feedback to keep me motivated)**


	7. Enraged But Totally Helpless, Indeed

**A/N: Well I'm a little late again, sorry about that. It's not proofread but it's finished and posted at least. So without further ado, here's chapter 7...**

* * *

Laying in bed and staring at the ceiling was the most Alex could do for the majority of the next day. It was Tuesday, and that meant that Spencer was back to school after having been a total stress case about missing yesterday. Alex thought her twin's mood might have been affected by what they'd unwittingly discovered last night, but Spencer didn't seem to want to talk about it and Alex knew better than to ask, lest Spencer shut her out again. So Spencer was steamrolling through whatever she was feeling, while Alex had basically shut down to process it all.

She couldn't believe it. Peter Hastings, one of the most powerful men in Rosewood, was her father. And he had a thing with her aunt Jessica. Clearly there was something horribly fucked up going on behind the scenes.

But never mind that shitshow, Rosewood High's junior English teacher was apparently a psychotic stalker with enough money to bribe a police department. Surprise, surprise! It hadn't even been a straight week of terrible events and Alex's brain was already overloaded with information. Having to go to anger management seemed mild compared with everything else.

At about 3:45, Alex heard pounding on the door downstairs. Whoever it was had a key, apparently, because next she heard the door slam open. Who could it be? Charlotte, her mother, Spencer? Hell, Peter didn't have a key did he? She hoped he wasn't coming to keep her eternally mute on the subject of his little affair.

"Alex!"

 _Aria_.

Before she could even register moving, Alex was pounding down the stairs in a blind fit of terror. Aria sounded panicked. _Is she okay? What's happened? Who do I have to kill?_

But Aria seemed fine—it was Spencer that looked shaken up. They both were sitting on the couch, Aria gripping Spencer's hand tightly, though it seemed she was trying to comfort herself as well. Spencer was staring blankly at the floor, trembling, and Alex could spot the finger-shaped bruises forming on her neck with ease.

"What the hell happened?" said Alex, kneeling down in front of her sister to examine the damage (not that she knew much first aid, but she had to do _something._ )

"I found her walking around school after everyone had cleared out," explained Aria, obviously frightened. "I don't know who would do this, and she's not saying much, Lex. What do we do? Go to the cops?"

Alex had a bad feeling she knew exactly who had done this, and catching Spencer's eye proved her right. The only thing missing was the why. Her sister was certainly lucid enough to speak, but Alex figured she was keeping mum because Aria wasn't filled in on the latest news. "We should tell her, Spence."

"Tell me what?" Aria's brow furrowed as she looked back and forth between them, waiting for an answer.

Spencer opened her mouth first, her voice painfully hoarse. "It was Fitz."

Aria reeled back like she had been slapped. "What? _He_ did this?"

Alex hated telling her what they'd found if it was going to scare her, but she let the story spill from her lips—Spencer's observations of Fitz following Aria, their plan to break into his apartment to find out more about him, discovering his secret stash. Aria looked so hurt upon finding out that the RPD was in his pocket that Alex immediately regretted mentioning it. But Aria had to know that it wasn't her fault Alex had been the one punished. She couldn't have stopped it even if she tried.

By the time Alex had explained everything, Spencer had recovered enough to tell about her encounter with Fitz, and Alex sat herself on Spencer's other side to listen. "Apparently there's a hidden camera outside his apartment door. He saw us go in, Al, and he was pissed. I think he wanted to prove a point, so he wrapped a hand around my throat and spelled out very clear how much influence he has. He threatened to expose our involvement in the Jenna Thing."

Alex saw Aria blanch, and figured she herself had gone white. The Jenna Thing had happened so long ago and no one in the group talked about it. Ever. They'd accidentally blinded Jenna Marshall in a stupid prank. Toby and Spencer had already been dating by then, and he took the fall for it to get away from his stepsister Jenna. Jenna had been forcing herself on him, apparently, and while learning that had lessened the guilt a little, they'd still robbed a girl of sight. Toby only stayed in juvie for a year before coming back, and by then Jenna had already re-established herself at Rosewood High, a vengeful presence breathing down their necks.

Alex had so far managed to shove the whole situation to the back of her mind, since the prank had been Alison's idea in the first place, but if Fitz knew about it there was a real danger of karma catching up to them all.

"That bastard," said Alex, anger boiling up inside of her. But what could she do about it, really? She'd already been itching to make him pay for hurting Aria, but now she couldn't do a damn thing with this threat hanging over her head.

"This is bad," said Aria. "Really bad."

Spencer nodded her head in agreement, massaged her temples, then laid back against the couch cushions and closed her eyes. The bruises on her neck looked horrible, and Alex found her anger rising to dangerous levels. That fucker had hurt her girlfriend, now her sister? What next? And what the hell could she do to stop it? She felt like a caged animal all of a sudden. Enraged but totally helpless.

As Spencer's breaths evened out in apparent sleep, Alex stood up off the couch and started to pace, hands tightening into fists. She found herself stomping upstairs, cursing, then she was in her bedroom and hefting her heavy punching bag onto its hook. Laying into it with every ounce of rage in her body was the only thing she could think to do, and she didn't want to stop even as the mostly-healed knuckles on her right hand split open again. Then her left hand was bleeding and her knees became her weapons. And finally she was just shoving the stupid bag, yelling incoherent insults at it, exhausted but feeling no better than she had only a few minutes ago.

Her aching knees hit the floor and she flinched as a hand laid on her shoulder. The irrational state of her mind had her believing it was Fitz beside her, ready to laugh in her face, but there was no energy left in her to attack. Instead she spoke.

"What do you want?" Her voice was hostile, the taste of anger bitter on her tongue. She felt so tired but she didn't know if this ride through hell was over yet. "Why the hell are you doing this? Why us?"

"Lex, look at me."

It struck her then. Fitz had made it very clear who he was, but _why_ he was targeting them was a mystery. A stupid mystery Alex didn't want any part of. Was it all because she'd broken the guy's nose? _No_ , she had to remind herself that he'd been following Aria and maybe the rest of them for a while now. So what was it that he wanted?

" _Alex_."

Aria... that was Aria. She was here, not Fitz. Alex felt her tiny, gentle hands rest against the sides of her face, turn her head so that she was staring into hazel eyes. They _were_ like alcohol; Alex could feel herself slowing down as she drank in the warm gaze.

"Calm down," breathed the girl. "It's okay."

Alex shook her head. "It's not, Bird. It's all fucked up. He hurt you and he hurt Spencer, and I can't do a damn thing about it."

"Well hurting yourself certainly isn't going to do any good, Lex. Just breathe. For me alright?"

Alex tried to steady her breathing, even though her knuckles stung and her heart was in her throat. Aria's presence helped, and soon she was matching her breathing to the girl's.

"Good. Now close your eyes," prompted Aria.

Alex complied, eyelids fluttering shut. Lips brushed against her own. This was much different than their first kiss, which had been unsure but quickly sparking into something heated and aggressive.

Now Aria's lips were gentle, light as a bird's wings, but they reassured Alex like nothing else could. She couldn't explain it, and it didn't help that her head was beginning to spin as more pressure was applied. Instead of riling her up, the mouth molded to her own was distracting her, pulling her away from the violent, crashing waves of her worries and floating her to shore, resting her on soft sand, a secluded beach.

She could almost sleep with how calm she became.

Of course, the irritating ringing of Alex's phone decided to ruin her bliss, and Aria broke away from her. Alex sighed as she dragged her eyes open, offered a reassuring smile and a wink to Aria, then rose from her spot on the floor. Aria followed her as she crossed the room to her nightstand and picked up the phone. It was Emily.

"Yeah, Em? What's up?"

" _Alex? We've got a problem._ "

Alex felt her stomach drop as she automatically assumed the worst. It was probably Fitz, hurting another of her friends.

" _It's Ali_. _She just found out that her mother is having an affair._ "

* * *

Alex let Aria wrap up her bloody knuckles with gauze, then they left Spencer asleep on the couch and drove to Emily's house. The swimmer's parents weren't home—thank god, because Alison was pissed. When the pair arrived, the blonde was practically pulling her hair out.

Emily was sitting on the couch beside Alison, a hand rubbing her back, and Hanna was standing nearby, arms crossed but looking concerned for her friend. Alex squeezed Aria's hand before letting go, then she approached the trio.

"What happened?"

"My mother just informed me that she's having an affair, and she had the _nerve_ to ask me to keep it a secret." Alison was practically spitting fire, and her enraged blue eyes snapped up to Alex. They tightened almost imperceptibly, then the queen bee was brushing off Emily and getting to her feet to shove a hand against Alex's chest, forcing her backwards. "She said she wanted to tell me before _you_ got to me. What the hell does that mean? Did you know about this?"

Alex bristled, instinctively becoming defensive at her cousin's tone. She took a step toward the blonde, ready to tell her to back off, but she felt Aria's hand slip into her own and glanced back at the tiny brunette.

"Don't look at your girlfriend, look at me, _Drake_. Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"We both knew, Ali," said Aria, before Alex could blurt out an excuse. "We caught your mom hooking up in a bathroom at the dinner party on Saturday. But we didn't know how to tell you."

Aria and Alex had discussed it over the phone on Sunday, but neither of them knew how to broach the subject to Alison, even though they knew they should mention it. Better to keep it to themselves, let the truth come out on it's own, they'd decided. Obviously they hadn't planned on Alison's mom breaking the news so soon.

Alison paused a moment, seeming to swallow their words, before she nodded. "You caught her. Of course. Who was it? Do I know him?"

Alex shot another glance at Aria, who returned her look with one that urged her to tell the truth. But Alex and Spencer were the only ones that knew the truth about Peter, and Alex didn't know if she should tell the others. But she had to. She trusted these girls with her life and they could only offer help.

"It was Peter Hastings," blurted Alex. She took a deep breath as the name sunk in and Alison dropped back onto the couch. Everyone looked rattled as Aria nodded in confirmation, but Alex opened her mouth again, feeling like she was about to drop another bomb in the wake of the last explosion. "And there's something else."

They all looked at her, expectant. Only Aria looked confused, and Alex tightened her grip on the girl's hand.

"Last night, Spencer and I saw Mr. Hastings at the door, talking to our mom. He said… we overheard…" She blew out a heavy breath, tried again . "It sounded like Peter Hastings is our father."

"Wait, what?" That was Hanna, shaking her head in utter horror.

Alison and Emily were staring up at her with identical expressions of disbelief, and she could feel Aria's eyes on her.

"Yeah. I'm still trying to make sense of it, too. And Spencer's not even acknowledging it."

Emily blinked rapidly, then, apparently unsure what to say, blurted out, "where is Spencer?"

Again, she shared a look with Aria. Again, she opened her mouth to explain everything about Fitz.

There was a moment of silence after she finished, then Emily let out a nervous, humorless laugh. "Sorry I asked."

Alison stared hard at Alex. "Holy shit."

Then came Hanna's voice. "Yeah, holy shit. This is bad."

"Really bad," affirmed Aria.

Alex nodded. "Really, _really_ bad.

* * *

 **A/N: Alrighty, so hopefully I haven't lost anyone. I can hardly keep up with everything that's happening, but I've got a whole lot of timelines and plot points written down that I can cheat with, so I don't know how you readers are faring. Just please let me know how I'm doing in a review (hint, hint) :D**

 **Also, I'm ready to start updating every week instead of every two weeks. I think instead of regularly posting two chapters a week, I'll do that only occasionally. Like when a chapter is a little short, I'll post a second one that week. And I'm thinking Wednesdays will be my update days.**

 **Thanks for reading and see you next week!**


	8. A Whole Lotta Sweat

**A/N: I'm posting this late and from my phone, so maybe it'll look all right, but at least I'm still updating. There's still hope I'll occasionally post on time, so cling onto that, my dear reader. :D**

 **Now, without further ado… a nice fluffy chapter where absolutely nothing goes wrong, I promise…**

* * *

Alex had her arms locked tight around her trainer's abdomen, attempting to wrestle him into surrender. Of course, she didn't expect to win this little grappling session. Joey, her fitness trainer, taught a few self-defense classes at Rosewood's local gym, but she wasn't technically enrolled in any of them. Still, they had been on a few friendly outings away from the gym, and he liked her well enough to occasionally give her a few pointers about handling herself in a fight. "Occasionally" usually meant that almost every session they ended up wrestling or—her favorite—kickboxing, because she liked it so much and he insisted it was good exercise anyway. Although she couldn't be bothered to actually enroll herself in a class; that was too much commitment.

If she was going to go to the gym, her intent was to work through shit she'd otherwise never think too much about. Whereas Spencer cajoled and bulldozed through the worst of her emotions, Alex usually blindly drowned in an emotional torrent until she figured out how to define what exactly she was feeling. Fighting cleared her head enough that she could pinpoint it and then freely react to it afterwards, in the showers or on the drive home. Crying angstily under the warm spray of water or aggressively screaming underneath a cover of heavy metal music turned up to max volume. Any other time she didn't know or care about whatever the hell emotions were. She'd react how she wanted to at the time and that was that.

Honestly, she figured, this anger management bullshit wasn't going to change the fact that she was the definition of impulsive.

Today, she was metaphorically and literally wrestling with the most messed up and latest problems in her life. A grown man was actively threatening her and her friends and her father was a cheating asshole. And not to mention she had the most important thing to ever come into her life to protect.

The thought of Aria had her concentration slipping, and Joey was suddenly turning the tables, flipping her around, and slamming her against the mat so hard she figured she'd have mat burn on the side of her face for eternity. Then she was being wrestled into a headlock, and she struggled to remember any of the techniques he had taught her to escape. While she wriggled around, her attention snapped to the sound of feet approaching—heeled boots, if she wasn't mistaken. There was one person she knew that had quite a fondness for those, and she craned her head around to look at the ajar door to the private session room they were using, a grin already on her face.

"What a pleasant surprise. My beautiful girlfriend has arrived to watch me get my ass handed to me." She glanced behind Aria. "And Spencer, apparently. Hey, Spence."

Her twin waved, looking particularly happy for having bruises camouflaged with makeup on her neck.

Aria tilted her head as she looked at Alex on the ground, a grin rising on her face. "You doing okay there, Lex?"

"Oh, yeah. It's no big deal," scoffed Alex. "I can get out of this whenever I want. I'm just biding my time."

"You just said you were getting your ass handed to you," Spencer pointed out.

Alex rolled her eyes. "That was obviously a joke. Keep up, Spencer." She broke out into a grin then, to show she was actually kidding and hopelessly trapped, and tapped her trainer's arm. He released her, then she rolled to her feet and sauntered over to the pair. "Hey, baby," she crooned, leaning in to give Aria a firm kiss on the lips, but not before she spotted Spencer's eyebrows lifting at the name.

Alex stuck a hand past Aria's side while they kissed to discreetly flip Spencer off, and her twin had a smug grin on her face as Aria and Alex pulled away from each other. Spencer was obviously planning to use that as fuel for relentlessly reading Alex or something, but Alex really didn't care, not when she had other things to worry about.

Aria pushed strands of Alex's sweaty hair away from her forehead, tucking the ones that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ears.

"Sorry I'm all gross," said Alex, offering the shorter girl an apologetic smile.

"It's okay," hummed Aria, rocking forward to initiate another kiss, her arms draping around Alex's neck. She pulled back a little, but only until their faces were still inches apart. "You are a knockout in any form."

"Even if I had just rolled in trash or something?"

Hazel eyes shot her a 'quit being a smartass' look, and then she sighed. "Probably, yes."

"Even if I didn't have a face?"

"Um… sure."

 _Alex squinted her eyes. "But wot if I talked loik this, luv? A righ' bri-ish accent? Fink it would be pruh-ee awful."_

Aria stared hard at her, seemingly torn between being genuinely disturbed and bursting out in laughter.

Spencer snorted. "That was the most horrific cockney accent I've ever heard. If that dialect was even what you were going for."

"Well I've never been to London!" cried Alex, throwing up her hands. "And how would you know? You only speak French!"

"Yeah, quite well, I might add. I know a thing or two about imitating a dialect."

"'I know a thing or two about imitating a dialect'," mocked Alex, in a snotty tone. She looked at Aria, who was still staring into the middle distance, trying to process Alex's previous attempt at an accent. "What if I talked like Spencer? Could you tolerate me then?"

Spencer rolled her eyes. _"Tu es un putain d'idiot."_

Alex rolled her eyes back. "I don't know what you said—because I took Spanish freshman year—but that sounded like an insult, so…. _¡Que te den!"_

"Do you actually know any other Spanish than that?" challenged Spencer.

"Of course!" Alex scoffed, but then shrugged, trying to be casual. "Well. No. That's just what I learned from this guy that sat behind me in class. But he was from Spain, so it counts!"

Aria snapped out of it suddenly, looking back and forth between Spencer and Alex. "Can you two stop swearing at each other in different languages now? I'm getting a headache. Matter of fact, can we just forget that this conversation ever happened?"

They both cooled off immediately, looking to the smaller girl like two bloodhounds catching a scent.

"Yeah, of course," said Spencer calmly, even as she shot a dirty look over Aria's head at Alex.

Alex stuck out her tongue at Spencer, then smiled at Aria. "Sure. And yeah, what did you guys come here for anyway? Just a friendly visit?"

"Well…" Aria began, grabbing Alex's hands and swinging them. "Not exactly. Spence was just helping me find you because I wanted to ask something."

"What?"

"I was thinking that maybe we could go on our first official date."

Alex broke out into a smile, then kissed Aria on the forehead and gently freed her hands from the girl's grasp. "Let me just see if my trainer will end the session a little earl–"

On the end of her sentence, arms were suddenly snaking underneath hers and snapping upward, hands locking on the back of her neck.

"Last lesson of the day, Drake: Always watch your back." Joey's cheerful laugh filled the room. "And always give your girl an answer before you walk away. I've learned that the hard way."

Alex sighed heavily, eyes settling on Aria. "Yes, I would love to go on a date with you," she said, voice quiet and genuine. Then she groaned like the most annoyed person in the universe, directing her words to Joey now. "If my trainer lets me out of this full nelson, that is. Hint, hint."

"What did we go over last week, Alex?" He said, in full teacher mode now.

She grabbed his fingers laced on her neck and yanked them backward, effectively loosening his hold. Then she twisted and threw an elbow into his gut, shoving him backwards once he'd doubled over. "There. So can I leave now?"

He nodded his approval and gave her a thumbs up, then Alex grabbed her bag and followed Spencer and Aria outside. They piled into the Highlander and Alex took a long pull from her water bottle while Aria scooted closer to her in the backseat. With Aria curled at her side and Spencer focused on driving, Alex took the opportunity to speak.

"Where are we going and can I take a shower before we go? I'm all sweaty."

Aria kissed her neck, an action that made a pleasant shudder run down Alex's spine, then she spoke directly into Alex's ear. "Sure, but I think we'll be getting hot again anyway. A little sweaty. When it's just you and me."

* * *

An hour later, when she was freshly showered and rehydrated, Alex was walking along a crowded sidewalk with Aria's hand in hers, the other girl happily feasting on cotton candy. They were having massive amounts of fun at the local amusement park, but the sun was beating down on them and sweat was stinging Alex's eyes.

"You know, when you said we'd be getting hot and sweaty together, this is not what I imagined."

Aria bumped their shoulders together. "There are children here, Lex."

"There are also many horny teenagers," retorted Alex, unabashed as she swung her head around to look at the petite brunette. "And I'm one of them."

"Me too," Aria said, quite blunt. Then she turned away and lifted her cat-eye sunglasses, seemingly searching for something. "I saw this really hot guy, earlier..."

Alex raised an eyebrow as Aria turned back around to grin sheepishly at her. "Kidding."

"I really hope you are," said Alex, breaking into a laugh. "Now give me some cotton candy."

Aria all but shoved it in her face, and Alex found herself squirming to get far enough away to where she could properly take a bite of the fluffy pink cloud. She tore off a piece finally and allowed it to melt in her mouth as Aria pulled it away.

"That's some damn good cotton candy," said Alex, reaching to pluck off another tuft.

Aria hummed her agreement, but then pulled them suddenly to a stop. "Holy crap, look at that thing!"

What Aria was referring to was a giant stuffed bear. The thing was absolutely gargantuan, practically the size of the fascinated brunette pointing at it. Alex smiled fondly at Aria's excitement, but, honestly, she herself thought that bear was awesome. It even had on a pair of cool giant sunglasses.

They wandered over to the game booth the bear sat in, and Alex directed her question to the man running it. "What do I have to do to get that bear?"

He gestured theatrically to the game behind the counter. It was your typical bottle ring toss setup, with those frustratingly tiny rings. "Simple. Get all three rings on any bottle and it's yours. Five bucks to play."

Alex dug in her pocket and produced the money, shooting Aria a wink as she handed it over to the man. "We'll get that bastard."

They did not, in fact, get the bastard. It turned out they were both terrible at ring toss, and they were pretty bummed out by the time they'd finished their third game. So to soothe the burn of losing, they went to the concession stands to indulge in various sugary foods and kidney-clogging drinks. Or, at least Alex was indulging… Aria claimed she wasn't very hungry.

Alex finished the final bite of her deep-fried cinnamon something-or-other, and knew instantly that she would regret it later. Aria was sat beside her on their bench, enjoying a nice, refreshing bottle of water, and Alex felt a little jealous of the girl since she probably wouldn't end up with a stomach ache. She sighed loudly, draped herself across Aria's lap, and groaned.

"I'm dying. My stomach is going to blow up any minute now."

Aria leaned down to peck an awkward sideways kiss on her lips. "Well that was your goodbye kiss."

Alex tapped her chin thoughtfully as she looked up at Aria. "It wasn't very good. I might need a few more." But when Aria leaned down to deliver, Alex stopped her with a finger pressed to her lips. "Not here. I'm thinking we go make out on the ferris wheel."

And they did just that, settling into one of the two-seater passenger cars. It seemed they were one of only a few that wanted to ride the wheel at this midday hour, being that there was no covering overhead to shield people from the sun. It was just them and the clouds.

The attendant locked a metal bar down across their laps to keep them from falling out, and then the thing started to move. After a few moments, they had a bird's eye view of the park, but Alex wasn't interested in it, instead turning to look at Aria. They were a few heated kisses in when the ride stopped with their car at the very top.

"What the hell?" cried Alex, glancing down at the ground to check out if the attendant knew what they were doing.

A jolt of unpleasant surprise shot through her when she saw that the attendant walking casually away, stuffing what looked like a wad of cash into her purse. And manning the controls of the ride was one Ezra Fitz. A nasty grin stretched across his face when he spotted her looking, and he raised a hand to wave at her.

"Shit," said Alex, swiveling back around. "We have a problem."

"What's going on?"

Deciding quickly not to tell Aria about Fitz to save the girl some panic, Alex took her girlfriend's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "It's just a little malfunction, I'm sure they'll have it fixed soon. Just don't look down."

Aria didn't offer to, her face going ghostly white except for the hot patches of red on her cheeks. The start of a sunburn. Alex immediately peeled her own sweaty shirt off and handed it to Aria to use as a tiny umbrella. Luckily she had a tank top on, but she would still take the worst of it, if Fitz's plan was to let them fry.

"What are you doing?" blurted Aria, looking at the shirt with obvious confusion.

"Just taking a precautionary measure. I'll be fine. We'll be down soon."

Aria lifted the shirt up, attempting to shield Alex from the sun, too, but the stupid shirt wasn't quite long enough to cover them both completely. So Aria took her sunglasses off and handed them to Alex. "Here. At least protect your eyes."

"Thanks."

It felt like hours had passed when the smaller girl swallowed thickly. "I don't like this, Alex. You're not looking very good."

Alex didn't feel very good either. Her head was pounding and her vision was swimming, and she was pouring sweat like nobody's business. Nausea was creeping up her throat, and it took all she had not to throw up all the junk she'd eaten. Aria seemed just as hot, but the shade was helping her tremendously. They'd began switching out the shirt umbrella after a while, but finally Alex had insisted Aria keep it.

A crowd had gathered down below, curious onlookers gazing up at them, and it seemed Fitz had done his part to actually break the machine. There were multiple people down there that looked like they were trying to fix it, and an ambulance sat on the grass nearby, doors open and ready for them when they got down. Firefighters were also present, apparently about to lift their ladder up and attempt to rescue them, and Alex couldn't wait, mostly for Aria's sake.

Her own body may be utterly destroyed by the sun, but Aria might be okay. And that was all that mattered to Alex.

* * *

 **A/N: Ferris wheels are fun, but if I was being stalked by a dangerous psycho, I don't think I'd choose to ride one. Unfortunately, Arlex did. Oops.**

 **Also, I had to make fun of the accent, even though I think Troian did do an amazing job regardless. Oh, and I don't speak anything other than good ol' 'merican English, so the internet helped me with those foreign curse words. I hope they're actually correct. (I only remember some of my high school Spanish and it's not much lol)**

 **And question: should I change the rating to M? I'm not entirely sure so leave me your opinions.**

 **Favorite, follow, and review, as always, and see you next week! :D**


	9. Freddy Krueger Has Feelings, Too

**A/N: So I think we can just assume from now on that I'm going to be late updating. In my defense, it's been the week from hell, and I made this chapter a little longer than usual to make up for it being Friday already. Oops. It's mostly fluff, but we're going to see one new face this time around…**

* * *

This sucked big time. But at least she was drugged.

After having received fluids for dehydration, then having the second degree burns on her face and arms treated and bandaged, and finally having had a few more tests to make sure the heat exhaustion hadn't messed up anything in her system, Alex was utterly and thoroughly sick of hospitals. She may not have been able to feel the pain, but she still felt the scratchiness of the blanket draped across her lap and the irritating pressure of the wires and tubes hooked into her arm. Aria's sunglasses had saved her eyes from damage, luckily, but bandages were wrapped around her head and covered her cheeks, nose, and forehead, almost like Zorro's mask. Her shoulders and upper arms were also covered in gauze, but her neck had only gotten some aloe lotion treatment. Wearing jeans had actually come in handy for once, protecting her lower half. But everything from her sternum up was utterly fucked.

"You look like a mummy."

Alex dragged her gaze over to where Charlotte stood in the doorway of her hospital room, presumably having been sent in by their mother, who had just left. "Yeah, and I feel like one, too," groaned Alex. "Please just pull the plug, C. This sucks."

Charlotte rolled her eyes, but grinned as she approached and stood at Alex's bedside. "You're not on life support, Lex."

"But I've been given so many drugs I might as well be."

They laughed lightly, but then Charlotte was nudging her non-burned hand. "There's one tiny brunette waiting outside with one big ass surprise. I take it you took the plunge and asked her out?"

"Yep," sighed Alex, wistfully. Maybe the painkillers were getting to her, but she felt like frolicking through a field of flowers all of a sudden. "She's so hot _and_ she's mygirlfriend. We're _together._ "

"Poor choice of words, Alex. The girl just recovered from heat exhaustion."

This got Alex's attention. Aria had still been getting treated when her mother came in, so this was the first she was hearing about her girlfriend's wellbeing.

Charlotte picked up on her concern and gently patted her hand. "She's okay. Just a simple sunburn and some dehydration. They gave her fluids and a few ibuprofen, ran a few tests. Nothing as bad as you got." Her older sister looked curious, brow furrowed. "What happened again?"

"Ferris wheel malfunction," lied Alex. The less Charlotte knew about Fitz, the better. Same with her mother. "I gave her my shirt to use as a makeshift umbrella."

"Well. I never pegged you as selfless, but I'm impressed," said Charlotte, turning to leave. She paused at the door, throwing a grin over her shoulder. "Well I've gotta get going, but keep up the good work, sis. You're definitely looking different from the Alex that skipped out of detention a week ago."

Alex scoffed. "Yeah, she got turned into Freddy Krueger."

Aria and Spencer came in next, and— _holy christ_ —they had that giant teddy bear hoisted between them. For some reason, the sight was so hilarious that Alex couldn't stop laughing for a full minute.

"H-h-how did you get that?!" she got out finally, her voice broken with chuckles. "Oh, my god, this is amazing!"

Aria took the lead, plopping the bear in an empty chair across the room so Alex could see it. "Well Spencer has some freakish skills at carnival games, so I convinced her to go win this thing. And she did. And now it's yours."

"I rode a few rides while I was there, too, got my money's worth," chimed Spencer. She smirked. "Skipped out on the ferris wheel, though. I heard these two weirdos got stuck at the top earlier."

"Hey!" Aria playfully shoved Spencer on the shoulder. "I take offense."

"So do I," laughed Alex. She looked Aria over as the girl came to link their hands. Her lips were chapped and her cheeks held a light burn from before they got on the ferris wheel, but she looked otherwise unaffected. It was a relief, because this burn stuff was awful. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the top of Alex's head, letting them linger a while before pulling away. "Thanks to you."

"No biggie." Alex offered her the slightest of grins, as it tinged something fierce to move her facial muscles too much, then tilted her head up and around. "Now give me a real kiss, Bird, I'm practically dying over here."

Aria tentatively met her lips with a kiss that was a bit painful, but Alex didn't care about burns or chapped lips. She just needed the best medicine in the world right now, and that was Aria Montgomery.

Spencer cleared her throat after several long seconds of sheer bliss, and they broke apart. Aria ran a gentle hand across Alex's hair, stroking it, scratching lightly at her scalp with her fingernails, soothing her. "You okay? Can I get you anything?"

"Kind of," breathed Alex, catching Spencer's eye over the girl's shoulder. "And a crappy cup of hospital coffee might be good right about now."

"I'll get you some." Aria perked up at the opportunity to help and darted out of the room before Alex even had the chance to respond. Then she was left alone with Spencer.

"You know, I only got that bear for Aria. I've got a plan to steal your girl, Al," teased her twin.

Alex scoffed, trying not to feel threatened by Spencer's claim. _It's just a joke, Alex, you dumbass._ "You have Toby."

"Yeah, but I love Aria, too," said Spencer. "We're Team Sparia, if you hadn't heard."

"I swear, that name is so stupid. Who came up with it?"

Spencer gave her a look of mock outrage. " _I_ did. You're just jealous that we have a special name."

"Oh, please," dismissed Alex with a roll of her eyes, though she felt herself internally cringe at the thought of Aria liking Spencer more than her. "And if you were gonna make a move on her, Spence, you would've done it already."

Spencer crossed her arms over her chest and gave Alex a smirk, confirming that Alex was being transparent as she felt. "You're actually threatened by the idea of me sweeping Aria off her feet."

Admittedly, Alex _had_ been wondering what might have happened in an alternate universe, where she and Spencer were rivals locked in a cutthroat competition. It seemed to Alex like Spencer was the superior twin, and she would have no difficulty making that clear if she really tried to. Alex knew she was just as smart as her family, but it was a whole lot of work to prove it to other people and, besides, she didn't give two shits about making a positive impression. Of course, just thinking about this made her realize she did care, maybe a little.

Aria had this uncanny ability to make her all kinds of insecure, which was all fine and dandy except Alex had no idea how to handle that. She'd "dated" people before, of course, and was usually the one to make the first move. Nothing ever lasted more than a few weeks, but those relationships were usually as superficial as possible, only temporary fun until they got tired of each other. And it scared the hell out of her to think that her feelings for Aria were so much different. Serious. Long-term. The buy-her-an-expensive-ring-and-settle-down type of love. The I'll-die-if-I-lose-you kind of love. The kind of love that was making her jealous of her own sister.

 _Oh, fuck._

"Am not!" Alex opposed, trying her damndest to keep the lie from showing in her voice. Spencer picked up on it easily.

"Don't worry, she's all yours." Her twin laughed, shaking her head, then gave her a long, silent look, eyes dancing with calculations and the most unreadable smile on her face. "You really do love her," she said finally—a statement, not a question. No surprise in her voice. Like she was reciting a dictionary definition.

Alex felt herself blush, but thank god for the bandages covering her cheeks. She pressed her lips together, averting her gaze to the giant teddy bear Aria had no doubt coerced Spencer into getting. But all looking at it did was cause heat to spread down her neck, warm her ears. And she was suddenly sure she'd been adopted from a family of goddamn tomatoes by how red she was becoming. Aria found a way to get that bear _all for Alex_ , and that was some kind of special.

For a moment, Spencer looked proud at having hit the nail on the head, but her expression was quickly becoming all sappy and genuine and Alex didn't feel like going through that at the moment.

But all Spencer said was, "I'm proud that you're my sister. And I'm glad that I can count on you to protect her." Her twin swallowed a bit uncomfortably, her own awkwardness with handling mushy things starting to peek through the cracks. "Literally giving her the shirt off your back isn't something everyone would've done in that situation, and I–"

"I'm not a war hero, Spence, you can keep the medal," said Alex, effectively cutting off the emotionally-stunted display before her. "But yeah. I really do want to keep her safe." She broke into a grin. "Especially from the likes of you and your smooth-talk."

They laughed, then fell into a comfortable silence. Spencer rubbed absently at her bruised neck, the makeup still covering it, while Alex tried to keep her thoughts straight under the weight of the pain medicine. They were a mess, the both of them. Hurt and scared and looking to protect the same girl.

"I didn't tell her," Alex began, voice low. "... about seeing Fitz. He was the one that stopped the ride, but I didn't want to scare her."

"I figured. And, anyway, she's already seen what he's capable of." Spencer gestured to her neck, then out the door in the general direction of the brunette, at Alex. "He tried to hurt her, then he threatened me, and now he's responsible for you ending up in a burn unit. I think you should just tell her the truth."

Alex nodded, looking back down at her blanket before her eyes snapped back up again at Spencer's voice.

"I gave her the idea," said her twin. "If I wouldn't have suggested it, who knows? Maybe this wouldn't have happened. I just figured that right now you need as much good in your life as you can get."

"Good looking out, big sis. Even though this attempt failed miserably, I'll be sure to get you back. Hopefully, you won't lose a limb in the process."

"I'm only older by twenty-one minutes, Alex, how many times do I have to remind you that? Stop calling me big sis."

"It's easier to deflect responsibility as the youngest child."

Before Spencer could open her mouth to reply, Aria was coming back through the door, three styrofoam cups held precariously in her arms. She handed one to Spencer, announcing, "here are two black coffees for my two favorite dorks," then came over and handed the other to Alex. They both murmured thanks, then she climbed up beside Alex on the bed and sipped at her own cup of water.

"So what were we talking about?"

Alex reached up and lightly brushed her thumb across Aria's sunburned cheek. "I think I actually need to tell you the truth, Aria."

Aria caught her wrist as she started to pull her hand away and kissed her palm. Then she held it in her lap, thumb drawing swirls on the back of Alex's hand. "What about?"

"Fitz stopped the ferris wheel. I saw him on the ground, but I didn't want to freak you out while we were up there."

Aria widened her eyes a little, but her mouth was pressed into a firm line. She let out an exasperated sigh, nodding her head. "Of course he did."

" _Ladies! Excuse me, ladies! You can't go in there!_ "

A commotion came from the hallway, the sound of several pairs of feet striding purposefully and nurses' stern commands at their heels.

" _Our best friend just got toasted by that fucking ball of fire in the sky! You're not going to stop us_ , _so you might as well get out of our way_." Hanna. Definitely Hanna.

Then a familiar trio arrived in the doorway, looking flustered but flawless as usual.

"How the hell did this happen?" Alison.

"Are you okay?" Emily.

"Who do I have to sue?" Hanna.

They all spoke at the same time, seemingly hurrying to get their words out before the nurses arrived in full force.

"We _will_ call security if we have to, ladies," clipped a nurse, who glared at their friends like they were pure evil. "Only two visitors at a time."

"Our hands are sanitized and we've all had our shots," stated Ali. "I don't see the problem."

"It is a rule for a reason," came a voice, with a noticeably charming British accent. Another man stepped through the door, a doctor. He looked at each of them in turn. "We ask two visitors at a time so as not to overwhelm the patient. I think you ladies may be considered quite overwhelming. Also with burns there's a higher risk of infection and we like to be cautious."

"Well I'm not overwhelmed," said Alex, bluntly. "It's fine if they stay."

The doctor swiveled to look at her, and he smiled a thousand-watt smile, his brown hair perfectly tossed and his hazel eyes shiny and curious enough to rival Aria's. "Ah, you must be Miss Drake. I'm here to take over your treatment. My name is Dr. Kingston."

* * *

Alex stayed in the burn unit for four more days, which she felt was entirely unnecessary but Dr. Kingston wanted to make sure her burns were healing properly. Her friends and family visited periodically, and then there was Aria, who stayed by her side the majority of the time, with the bear taking over when she was at school. In those moments, she felt safe with the stuffed animal's button eyes vigilantly pointed toward the door, but she couldn't help but remember that almost everyone she cared about was in that school with _him_. Maybe he couldn't get to her in the hospital, but she was constantly waiting for Aria not to return, for someone to come in with a solemn expression and the worst kind of news.

Luckily that never happened, and when Sunday rolled around she felt bittersweet relief lift some of the uneasy weight from her bones. Her mother was somewhere handling the discharge papers, her twin was sitting in one corner of the room with her nose in a yellow, sticky-note-covered book, Charlotte was leaning against the wall beside Spencer, typing away on her cellphone, and Aria was helping Alex put on her boots, even though she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. It felt unbelievably good to be out of the flimsy hospital gown and back in her own clothes, and there was a palpable anticipation in the air. Something still but humming with energy, punctuated only by the clacking of fingernails, the light swish of a page turning, the squeak of leather as her feet met the tiled floor. She paced around, enjoying the familiar way her soles hugged her toes, hyper aware of the way Aria's eyes followed her. Her muscles creaked and her joints crackled distractingly as she stretched her arms over her head, but when she turned around to face Aria, she noticed the girl's eyes snap upward a little too quickly, apparently paying attention to a different part of Alex's body.

Alex glided over as casually as possible, then leaned down to breathe into Aria's ear. "Like what you see?"

Aria turned her head to meet her eyes, her cheeks tinged with pink, and she whispered back a nervous, "yeah."

A loud cough broke them apart, and Alex turned to see her sisters staring at them, identical smirks on their faces.

"Oh, shut up," said Alex, gesturing to the door. "There are plenty of things to look at out there, you know."

"Hint taken," said Spencer, rising and heading to the door.

Charlotte followed, not turning as she reminded them, "Don't get too carried away."

Then the door was clicking shut and Alex turned back to Aria with a grin on her face. "Where were we?"

Aria stood, hooking her fingers in Alex's belt loops and tugging her closer, then she looked up through her inky lashes in a way that made Alex's knees go weak. "I really like these jeans on you."

"Careful, Aria," Alex husked, running her hands along the smooth skin of Aria's arms, smiling at the goosebumps she found there. "Or I don't think I'll be able to control myself."

"Why do you have to try?" Aria smirked, then stood on tiptoe to press their lips together. Alex's were still cracked and rough, but Aria's felt soft and plump, though they matched each other in fervor.

Alex slid her arms around to feel the burning skin at the small of Aria's back, decided she wouldn't mind if she got scorched again, and her head started to spin. Somehow she ended up sitting on the edge of the bed with Aria perched on her thigh, their mouths molded together almost desperately. Pain had sunk into the layers of skin on her face and shoulders, but Aria was careful not to brush against any of the burns. Only when they ran out of air did they break apart, and then Aria took her time with examining Alex's face, fingers hovering over the dead skin, ghosting across the wounds with a touch as light as a butterfly's kiss.

"They look like bruises," she whispered finally, and Alex could practically smell the guilt on her breath.

"My face will be all red and shiny and new soon, don't worry."

Aria pulled an exaggerated thinking face, tapping her chin. "I think I'll like you just the same."

Alex smiled and stole another kiss. "You _think_?"

A knock went at the door suddenly, and Charlotte stuck her head in a moment later, a hand covering her eyes. "Mom alert. Put your clothes back on."

"You can uncover your eyes, C, we're not doing anything."

Charlotte responded by letting her hand drop and blowing out an exaggerated sigh, and they could hear her mutter under her breath as she slipped back out the door. "Thank god."

Aria moved off of Alex's knee and sat beside her on the bed, intertwining their hands before Alex's mother came in, followed by Spencer and Charlotte. "Ready, girls?" questioned her mother, before her eyes darted to where Alex was gripping Aria's hand so tightly it hurt, and a tiny smile grew on her face.

Alex rolled her eyes. _She's definitely going to invite Aria for dinner._

"Aria, dear, would you like to join us for dinner?"

Her mother had her predictable moments, though Alex didn't know if her plan was to subtly interrogate Aria or to accommodate her like a member of the family. It turned out to be the latter, much to Alex's relief, and things were going very smoothly at this rare Drake family dinner until Alex found herself alone in the kitchen for a moment, which was when a light hand fell on her arm and she had to prepare herself for the no doubt awkward conversation that was to follow.

"Alex, is Aria this girlfriend Spencer mentioned?"

Alex steeled herself, took a sip of her soda, then without turning she blurted out a, "Yep."

There was that nod her mother did, which was something cynical veiled with a motherly understanding. "Just be careful, Alex, I don't want you to get hurt."

Finally meeting her mother's unreadable blue eyes with her own even stare, Alex thought about casually mentioning Peter Hastings, if only so she could feel get rid of this feeling that she was no longer on even ground. But she decided against it, decided to tuck the info under her shirt in case she needed it later on, because maybe her mother actually was trying to be genuine and because Charlotte, Spencer, and Aria were in the next room.

"I will," she ground out. "I trust Aria."

When she returned back to the living room, Aria was beating a positively gleeful Spencer with a wiimote, and Charlotte was cowering behind a sofa cushion.

"What the hell did I miss?"

Charlotte pointed at the television, where the _Congratulations_ screen of Mario Kart was playing. "Your girlfriend is fucking terrifying, Alex."

Aria ceased her assault on Spencer for just a moment to cut in, practically shaking with fury. She punctuated each syllable with a smack of the wiimote. "Spen-CER. Blue. Shelled. ME! At the FINISH. LINE!"

Spencer winced with each strike, but she was laughing. "I'm sorry—I was just playing to win! You gotta bring your a-game, Ari."

"Oh, you'll see my a-game when I take this wiimote and–"

Alex effectively cut them off by dropping like a bag of bricks between them—or rather on top of them—and she jabbed an elbow into Spencer's ribs, slung her other arm across Aria's face. They groaned in unison and Alex chuckled.

"I would let you continue to beat up Spencer, Aria, but I'm here to join the game. Now give me a remote and I'll blow you three out of the water."

Charlotte threw her a skeptical look, but handed her one anyway. "I thought you were awful at racing games."

"I am," Alex admitted, shifting so she was pretty sure neither of them would be able to accurately use their arms to steer. "But I'm also literally crushing the competition."

They played Mario Kart, each of them yelling at the screen so loudly at times that their mother would shush them all the way from upstairs. Aria won a few games, while Alex and Charlotte were tied for last place, and Spencer was kicking ass, naturally. At some point they all started falling asleep, the volume of the TV dipping to a hush, the windows steadily darkening with pitch black night. Charlotte dropped first, sprawling at one end of the sofa like a dead body, and Alex figured it was because she was _old_ and had a real adult job. Then Spencer retired upstairs to get ready for school tomorrow, and finally it was just Aria and Alex having one last racing showdown, Charlotte's light snores in the background.

Eventually, Aria remarked that she was tired, and texted her mom to tell her where she was crashing. They switched to watching a late-night rerun of some old show, sitting as close together as they could without aggravating Alex's burns, and drifted comfortably to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N: While we're waiting for Alex to heal and the shit to really hit the fan, anybody have any theories about Fitz's motive? We're only about a third of the way through the story at this point (maybe more or less, we'll see), so there's definitely a lot more to come, but I wanna know how I'm doing so far.**

 **Oh, and heads up, I'm changing this story's official rating to M, just in case. I'm still considering it Strong T, though.**

 **See you next week! :D**


	10. Some Things You Can Never Recover From

**A/N: So not much happens this chapter and I didn't have a lot of time to write anyway, but I hit my word count goal and the show must go on. Next week's chapter will hopefully be better and longer.**

 **And that's about it. I'll let you get reading…**

* * *

Alex tapped her feet against the floor, veins humming with nervous energy as she listened to Kevin, the anger management group leader, go on about something or other. Her mind wasn't in the discussion only because Aria was currently in the building. Their plan was for her to get in the storage room while everyone else was in the meeting, and it seemed to be working so far, as Alex hadn't heard any commotion in the hallway yet.

"Alex. Why don't you start us off and tell us about your week?"

Her attention snapped to where Kevin was regarding with a calm expression. He smiled a gentle smile, and it might've put her at ease if she wasn't nervous as hell about Aria getting caught.

"Um, yeah," she started, shrugging her shoulders. "Let's see… it was pretty great. Except I was in a ferris wheel accident and got second degree burns. That's what's with my face, if you were wondering. I guess I look like the living dead. Spent a few days in the hospital, so there wasn't much time to get angry."

Kevin nodded thoughtfully. "Well I'm very sorry that happened, Alex. Were you upset with the operator of the ride? Any anger there?"

 _More like stark raving terror because that ride operator was a dangerous stalker that also strangled my sister and threatened everything we care about. Some anger—the kind that gets people locked up for homicide—but, no, nothing serious._

"A little," she lied, nodding like she was making some big revelation. "But accidents happen, right?"

"They do," said Kevin. "That's a very healthy attitude, Alex." He then turned to the man beside her. "Walter. How are you faring lately? Have you reached out to your wife?"

As Walter was telling them that his wife might be considering giving him a second chance, the door squeaked opened and everyone jumped at the sudden noise. Alex felt adrenaline shoot down her spine, her body readying itself for a confrontation—maybe even the police—but it was only a mildly annoyed security guard with his hand on the back of Aria's neck. He sighed heavily. "This one belong here?"

Alex shot a glance at Aria, but the girl wasn't looking at her, probably to avoid raising suspicion. Kevin stood and went over to speak to them, their conversation audible in the big empty room. Alex listened in, impressed with the lie Aria came up with. Finally the security guard left, keys jingling on his belt, and the pair came back over. Kevin gestured to a spare chair nearby and Aria drug it over to their circle a bit timidly.

"Everyone, this is Amy. It seems she'll be joining us today," said Kevin, offering Aria his warm smile. "Amy, don't feel pressured to share, but I ask that you please make an effort to listen."

Once the discussion had started up again, Alex caught Aria's eye and winked. Aria returned it with a slight, tense smile. To any casual onlookers it would seem like typical flirting, but Alex could read the disappointment in Aria's face. She had a feeling she hadn't even gotten in.

They kept their distance even in the parking lot, and Alex waited in the SUV while Aria stood on the curb until everyone else was out of sight. It took a few minutes, and Alex spot Kevin presumably asking her if she needed a ride before she waved him off. When his car disappeared around the grim building, Alex pulled over to pick Aria up.

"Where to, pretty lady?" she joked, as Aria clambered into the passenger seat and buckled her seat belt. "Next town? Next state? My basement?"

Aria shot her a glare. "Alex…"

"Sorry." She held up her hands in surrender. "Poor taste. No more kidnapping jokes, I promise."

"Good." She sighed and leaned against the window as they started down the tiny road that curved around to the front gates of Radley. A beat of silence passed before Aria reached to turn on the radio.

"So I take it you had no luck?" said Alex, reaching her right hand over to link with Aria's left.

"They have the door locked. And the security guard was making his rounds."

"We need Spencer on this. She has a lockpick set for just the occasion."

Aria let out a short laugh. "Of course she does."

* * *

The next day, Alex stayed home from school again. Yesterday no one had asked if she even wanted to go, but this morning her mother had poked her head into Alex's room to see if she wanted to go today. The dead skin on her burns had finally sloughed off, just like Dr. Kingston said it would in a few days, and her face and shoulders were a bright red, the new skin shiny and sore to the touch. It was almost like a regular (if severe) sunburn now, but it was still a little swollen and might scar. Though she had this special magical ointment that was supposed to make it heal better or something.

So she was left alone to do as she pleased, which Alex decided was to sleep for as long as possible. Her bed was too warm to abandon and, besides, she had a giant stuffed companion keeping her company while she dozed. It'd only been an hour or so since her mother left before she heard a knock at the front door downstairs. She sighed and very reluctantly dragged herself out of bed, but felt her spirits lift as she opened the door to Aria.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" she greeted, as Aria pulled her in for a kiss.

"My dad let me miss school to come spend the day with you. He knows all about the ferris wheel."

Alex grinned. "But I assume if he knew about us you would be at school right now?"

"I'll tell them eventually. There's no rush. And if it means we can still have sleepovers, then I might have to wait a little longer."

"Sneaky," said Alex, impressed. "But my mom knows now, so these _sleepovers_ might have to actually be just sleeping."

Aria looked disappointed, her bottom lip poking out momentarily before she brightened again. "Well we have this entire day to ourselves." She held up her purse. "And I brought movies."

Halfway into the first movie and they were already thoroughly engrossed in each other. They took things frustratingly slow, but Alex's burns would let her know if she got too aggressive, too eager. So some light making out had to suffice. Eventually they gave up and were sat as close as was comfortable on the couch. Aria's fingers drew lazy patterns on Alex's thigh as they rested in a cozy silence, and when Alex glanced over at her, she noticed how contemplative the girl was.

"What is it?"

Aria kept her eyes on the movie, though her expression tightened considerably. "Just wondering what we'll find in that storage room. That guard yesterday... he was practically pacing outside that door. There's something important in there."

"Patient information probably. Files on who knows what. What I'm interested in is any connection to Fitz or why he donated such big bucks to an outdated sanitarium."

Aria shook her head. "I don't know."

* * *

She went back to school the next Monday, and by then she had missed two whole weeks of classes—one from suspension and the other from her wounds. But her face was healed enough that she was confident hardly anyone would care to point it out. Her skin still looked awkward and uneven, and wasn't even close to being completely healed yet, but still it was a step in the right direction.

Alex was just pulling her books out of her locker when she spotted a petite brunette out of the corner of her eye, one she was particularly suspicious of. _Mona._ Seeing her reminded Alex that the girl was on Fitz's payroll, so she turned swiftly and grabbed her arm as she passed.

"Hey, Mona, I have a question."

The girl's eyes swept over her, examined her, her face neutral but her eyes cold and calculating. "What can I do for you, Alex? Need help catching up?"

"No, actually. I need to talk to you." Alex scanned the hallway, spotted the nearby girl's bathrooms, and dragged Mona inside. The smaller girl shook her off and Alex peeked under the stalls to make sure they were alone, then she swiveled to face Mona. "Mona, why did Mr. Fitz pay you?"

Surprise flickered across Mona's face, and for a moment she looked like a cornered animal before her expression smoothed out again. "A computer job. It was nothing big."

"Fine." Alex straightened to her full height, ready to grab Mona if she tried to run. "Listen, Mona, we know who Fitz is—all of us—and if you don't tell me, I'll let Hanna know where you got all that extra cash. And she'll drop you faster than you can blink."

"Okay! If you really have to know, I'll tell you," blurted Mona. She sighed, lips pursing. "He had me steal a file from Radley. Your sister's, to be exact."

"Charlotte? Why?"

Mona face was unreadable, and she shrugged in a way that suggested she knew all the answers, but Alex didn't know if that was just Mona being Mona or if she was actually in cahoots with Fitz. "Blackmail maybe? There's probably a lot in that file that I think Charlotte wouldn't want to get out."

"Great," Alex deadpanned. " _Why_ did you do this again? Just for the money?"

"Oh, he tried blackmailing me at first. But I wasn't very concerned with that particular information getting out, so he whipped out a checkbook. To be honest, I didn't think I'd be stealing such sensitive information, but here we are."

"Here we are," sighed Alex, then she left Mona where she stood, resisting the urge to punch the girl in the face.

Alex was in Fitz's class for first period, so she started off the day suffering through his eyes lingering on her. It was bad enough that she couldn't kick his ass again without certainly landing herself in juvie, and now she had to deal with being in the same room as him for an hour. Once the bell rang, she nearly ran for the door, but his calm, even voice called her back.

"Alex Drake. A word?"

She stopped just inside the door and turned slowly around, waiting until the entire line of students shuffled out. Her friends were still waiting in the classroom, clutching tightly to their books and looking very uneasy, but she waved them out. Spencer shot her a warning look as she passed, and Alex's eyes darted to her neck, where the bruises were finally healed. Aria was the last one through the door, standing on tiptoe for a kiss before whispering in her ear. "Be careful."

Fitz glided over and shut the door behind them, then gestured to a desk up front, nearest to his. "Have a seat."

She obliged, spine stiffening as she lowered into the seat. He leaned against the front of his desk and folded his arms, then they were locked in a staring contest.

He broke the silence first, voice too polite for the coldness in his eyes. "Miss Drake, I hope by now you've realized that actions have consequences."

"Actions have consequences? Sure. But I'm guessing that doesn't apply to you?"

An eerie smile crossed his lips. "I'm righting a wrong that was done a long time ago… and after I'm finished with my work, I'll face what comes with it."

"What did we ever do to you?! You choked my sister and you trapped Aria and I on a ferris wheel, what did any of us do to deserve that?"

"Broke into my apartment, for one," said Ezra. He pushed away from his desk, paced back and forth in front of it before gesturing to the door. "You can go now."

"That's it?" Alex exclaimed. "No threats, no explanation?"

He sighed, shuffled a stack of papers without looking at her. "This is about more than you, Alex. And I've already covered the threatening part."

"Well that's fan-fucking-tastic, isn't it. Will nobody give me a straight answer today?" She got out of her seat and stormed to the door, muttering expletives under her breath.

"War doesn't work like that Alex," came Fitz's voice, just as she yanked open the door. "There aren't very many straight answers."

Alex rolled her eyes, swinging back around to scowl at him. "This isn't a war. It's a grown man with a stupid vendetta because of something that happened—how'd you put it?—a long time ago. Get over it."

Upon turning around to leave, she nearly ran smack into Jenna. Jenna Marshall, with her dark glasses and menacingly curved lips. Jenna, who Alex had had a hand in accidentally blinding.

The girl stared at her as though she still had her sight, and Alex got the eerie feeling that she could, in fact, see through those glasses. She could see the guilt flooding Alex's face. "Get over it? My, what a beautiful sentiment. But you should know, Alex, that there are some things you can never recover from." Jenna's cane tapped at Alex's knee, and she dodged out of the way to let her by. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to Mr. Fitz."

Alex stepped out of the room, catching sight of Aria waiting for her, her brow furrowed as she watched Fitz close the door behind Jenna.

"What was that about?" she asked, as Alex linked their hands.

Alex frowned. "I have no idea."

* * *

 **A/N: Well this chapter is shit, but it's the best I can do under the circumstances. As always, leave a review with any thoughts or comments, and I'll see you next week. :)**


	11. Getting Answers But Not Really

**A/N: Today I got crippled with a migraine from hell, so sorry this update is kind of late. This is my shortest chapter yet, too, but it's still fairly important in the scheme of things. I'll let you read now and then I'll see you at the bottom.**

* * *

Alex chewed her lunch with a scowl. The encounter with Fitz left a bad taste in her mouth and seeing Jenna slink into his classroom before she left hadn't helped matters. So there was their psychotic English teacher, a crafty wildcard, and a girl that Alex inadvertently help to blind _maybe_ conspiring against them. Not to mention Alex and Spencer's real father was having an affair with Alison's mother. And Aria was caught up in the middle of all this fuckery, with Fitz's leering eyes on her all the time.

Speaking of Alison's adulterous mother, Ali and Em weren't seated at their lunch table today. It was strange without their lovey-dovey looks and the exaggerated gagging noises everyone made when the couple fed each other or whispered in each other's ears or whatever. Hanna was pausing to take sips of her bottle of water as she explained to Alex just how weird Alison had been acting, and Aria nodded along to confirm all of it. Spencer just sat and picked at her salad, eyes glancing at her phone every now and then. The mood was unusually somber, and Alex didn't like it.

"She's been a total stress case lately, like Spencer," continued Hanna. "I see why they're related now. But it's Ali, so she hides it so well. I think her and Em go somewhere so she can express her emotions in private or something. I dunno, but this is seriously messed up."

Spencer's phone buzzed then, and she picked it up, lips pursing ever-so-slightly as her eyes scanned the screen. A flicker of something flashed in her eyes, and Alex shushed Hanna's rambling for a moment.

"Spence?" she said, watching as her twin set her phone down as carefully as if it were a bomb. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she muttered. "Just Toby."

Aria spoke up from Alex's side, her voice gentle and concerned. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, we can split our time between crisises," offered Hanna, nudging Alex's twin.

"Crises," corrected Spencer. "And it's fine. He's just pissed because he thinks I don't tell him everything."

Alex shoveled mashed potatoes into her mouth and then point the tines of her fork at Spencer. "You don't."

Spencer let out a heavy sigh, bitter sarcasm seeping into her voice as she stabbed a piece of lettuce. "Yeah, well… he doesn't need to know that, does he?" Then her tone sobered, eyes tightening. "I don't want him to get hurt. If he finds out about Fitz, who knows what he'll do. End up dead or in jail? I already lost him for a year because of Ali's stupid prank, and I'm not letting our _English teacher_ take him down."

Understanding perfectly, Alex let the topic drop. She'd ridden the same train of thought with whether to tell Aria about Fitz manning the ferris wheel, but as things were Aria was already too tangled in it all. There was no keeping her safely oblivious, unfortunately. And that really sucked.

* * *

When Spencer and Alex got home that afternoon, it was drizzling out, and they hurried into the house only to find their mother, who usually wasn't home until five o'clock. Alex glanced at Spencer, who looked back with a silent nod of confirmation. There couldn't be a better time to get answers than now, and Alex was starving for a concrete confirmation after all the shifty glances and dodgy words today. Spencer slung her purse onto the couch as Alex dropped her backpack by the door, and they shuffled silently into the kitchen, where their mother was sitting at the table scanning a newspaper.

"Hey, mom," began Spencer, sinking carefully down in the chair beside their mother, like she was about to throw a net over a skittish rabbit. "You're home early."

"Hello, girls," said Mary, lifting her head in that regal manner she had and appraising her daughter's tense postures. "There wasn't much left to do at the office, so I thought I'd come home. How was school?"

Their mother worked in real estate with their aunt and uncle—she kept the books or something... Alex didn't know and had never felt the need to ask. Alex shrugged off the information and grabbed the chocolate milk from the fridge, taking a long swig to fortify herself for the upcoming conversation. Spencer nodded and glanced back at Alex.

"It was good. How about you, Al?"

Alex threw a thumbs up their way, still chugging from the milk jug. When she was finished, she _ahhed_ contentedly, then set the milk back in the refrigerator. "It was great. I love school. _So_ glad to be back."

"Sarcasm doesn't become you, Alexandra," quipped Mary, turning back to her reading.

"Right." Alex sashayed over to the table, leaned against the edge of it beside where Spencer was sitting. "We Drake women are of the classy sort. No _scandalous_ _affairs_ to be uncovered in this household."

Spencer looked up at her and mouthed, ' _subtle_.'

Mary looked up at her too, pursing her lips as slightly as Spencer had earlier when Toby texted. "Something on your mind, sweetheart?"

"Yeah," said Alex, brashly. "Like why have you been hiding the fact that Peter _Hastings_ is our father?"

Their mother's spine stiffened, but there was hardly a single flicker of surprise in her expression. Instead, her gaze was cool, leveling, like Alex was an unruly child, and Alex resisted the urge to shrink. After a moment, Mary spoke, her tone one of condescension. "Now where did you get that idea in your head?"

"We _saw_ him at the door weeks ago," chimed Spencer. "And both of us heard you tell him that we're his daughters, too."

"I don't recall ever having anything to do with Peter, though Jessica knows him quite well. Maybe talk to her about this, girls." Mary smiled, obviously dismissing them as she looked back at the paper. Alex leaned forward and slapped her hand onto the table, effectively covering the column her mother was reading and getting her attention while she was at it. Blue eyes snapped back to them, looking at both Spencer and Alex in turn, and they hardened. "I don't know what you _think_ you saw, but I've never exchanged a word with Peter Hastings. Now let it go. I assume you both have homework to get started on?"

Spencer shot to her feet. "What, are you trying to gaslight us or something? We know what we saw!"

Mary rose to meet her, her jaw tight. "Both of you, go to your rooms—NOW!"

Alex and Spencer both flinched; their mother never yelled. Raised her voice, got upset, but _never_ had she flat out _screamed_ at them.

"What is so important that you can't tell us?!" cried Alex.

"It is _none of your business_!"

"He is our _father_ ," screamed Spencer. Then she shook her head, took a deep breath, tried to calm down. Her voice then came out low, tense. "I understand if you don't want to tell us what happened between you two, but _please_ , mom, just tell us the truth."

They waited as their mother became suddenly fascinated by the wood grain of the table, and Alex took the time to rub the back of her hand across her cheeks to dry them. Each of them had tears welling in their eyes, which was quite the uncommon occurrence. They all were guarded people, and crying wasn't something they did in front of each other.

"No," whispered Mary. "I can't do that."

Anger struck Alex like lightning, and she scoffed, hands clenching into fists before she shoved the nearest chair over, the clatter of it striking the floor only fueling her rage. Her feet carried her out of the kitchen, ears deaf to the voices of her mother and sister calling her back, and she booked it out the front door before she completely lost it on one of them. The clouds had cracked open by now, but Alex headed out into the deluge with no hesitation, a haze of red seeping into the corners of her vision. She figured the cold fingers running down her back would calm her down, so she took off away from the house at a brisk pace.

Alex had almost reached town when she had the idea to call Aria—just to hear her voice—but she realized her cell phone was tucked in a pocket of her backpack. She sighed, then glanced up at the sky as another rumble of thunder rattled in her chest. If her mascara wasn't running before, it was now—she was drenched. She scowled at the clouds, then spun around and slammed the toe of her boot into a mailbox post, screaming all of the anger out of her chest.

"Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" She kicked the post at the tail end of each syllable until her entire foot hurt, but that just made things worse. " _Shit_!"

"Hey!" a vaguely familiar voice called, and she turned to see the burn unit doctor from the hospital, jogging toward her with an umbrella tugging in his grasp.

"Can I help you?" she said once he'd gotten closer.

He stuck out a hand. "It's Wren. Kingston. Dr. Kingston. And you're Alex. Ferris wheel malfunction. You remember me, right?"

"Yeah. Now, what do you want?"

"I just wanted to see if you're alright," Wren said, letting his hand drop awkwardly. He looked past her at the mailbox she'd been kicking. "That mailbox owe you money?"

Alex rolled her eyes and started to walk backward, away from him. "I don't think it's any of your business if it does."

"Wait! I also wanted to ask if maybe you'd—"

"I'm taken, dollface," she quipped, but then she twisted her mouth as if in thought. "But I could use a coffee right now. And someone to complain to."

Wren perked up, then slogged after her. "Right. Friendly coffee. And we'll talk."

She lifted an eyebrow. "You a psychologist, too?"

"Actually, I-"

"Never mind. I don't want to know it if you're psychoanalyzing me."

Wren was actually a pretty nice guy, it turned out. They got coffee in the Brew, and as Alex began to try and ward off the shivers that came with being soaked by rainwater, Wren offered her his coat like a gentleman. She accepted it, but only because she was starting to shake like a chihuahua.

"So what's wrong?" he asked when they were sitting across from each other in a booth. He sipped at his coffee and patiently trained his eyes on her.

Alex chuckled. "Trust me, a lot." She blew on her drink, hands wrapped around the warm paper cup, then she sighed. "Have you ever had your entire foundation shaken? Like… everything you thought you knew just gets obliterated by this one tiny piece of information."

His eyebrows raised. "You'd be surprised."

"Oh yeah?" she questioned, taking a painful gulp of the still-scalding drink. "Mine is unintentionally finding out who my father is. What's yours?"

"Similar, actually. Although I went looking for answers," said Wren. "Wasn't what I expected, though."

The rest of their conversation bordered on mundane, with Alex bitching about anything that didn't tell Wren too much, and she eventually found herself calming down. Wren offered to drive her home, but she politely declined, considering he was still practically a stranger. So they said goodbye and Alex went to the bathroom to wash her face of any lingering streaks of makeup. She looked a mess; her hair was beginning to curl wildly as it dried, her morning work with a flat iron completely undone, and her cheeks were stained with very faint lines of black. She looked like she'd just had the worst breakup of her life. It was then she realized that she still had Wren's jacket, and she wondered if he'd done that on purpose just so he'd have an excuse to see her again.

The rain had stopped when she stepped back outside and began her walk home. Her legs were aching as she reached the driveway of her house, and she didn't care to acknowledge anything or anyone as she grabbed her phone from her bag, shuffled upstairs, and flopped onto her bed with the intent to finally call Aria. But a timid knock on her door had her letting out a loud sigh, and she twisted around to look at her visitor: Spencer, who looked like she'd been crying her eyes out.

"What's wrong?"

"Toby stopped by while you were gone," said her twin, wrapping her arms around herself. "We broke up."

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, it's official, I'm all burnt out. So for that reason, I'm gonna take a short break with writing this story. Just two weeks, and in that time I'll be sorting out details and outlining chapters, and hopefully I'll be able to come back strong. I have no plans to end this story prematurely, but migraines equal my brain telling me I'm stressing too hard about too many things and need to set something down for a while. I still have the habit of writing random stuff out of boredom, though, so I may post some other one or two-shots in the meantime (as much as I love Arlex, I miss Sparia sooo much. So expect lots of Sparia).**

 **Leave a review, maybe any suggestions for moments you'd like to see before I really start to fuck shit up for Arlex and Company, and of course, favorite and follow if you're so inclined. See you in two weeks and thanks for reading! :)**


	12. The Doctor is In

**A/N: Jeez, whatever happened to just two weeks lol? In my defense, I fell off the sanity wagon and spent a few weeks in a hospital trying to get my head right, and since then I've been just barely scraping by. Progress is slow, but it's there, so there's that at least. Personal issues aside, I couldn't keep you guys waiting any longer so I ground out this chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer (because it's been a while): I don't own PLL, obviously. Also, Alex swears a lot, the sexual tension between Arlex is definitely escalating (wink, wink), and people might go batshit crazy and/or die, so be careful of triggers in future chapters. Just a warning :P**

* * *

"Tell me the truth, Spence," said Alex, gripping the steering wheel tightly. "Do I need to slash his tires?"

Spencer didn't respond at first, too busy staring out the window at the passing scenery. They'd left behind the rain and were now on the outskirts of Rosewood, heading toward Radley, where Alex had her weekly hour-long anger management group sessions. Her twin had reluctantly joined her on the drive and was now thoroughly engrossed in sprawling pastures and dead-eyed, cud-chewing cattle. Spencer herself had gone frighteningly dull, and Alex had a feeling she had moved past bawling her eyes out and was now internally processing her break-up. But this driving in silence thing was ridiculous.

"Alex…" drawled Spencer in an exhausted monotone, obviously not willing to put up with her bullshit at the moment. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Alex scoffed. "You're impossible. You're doing that thing where you freak the fuck out and then shut everybody out. It's not healthy."

"Neither is exploding, which I've seen you do about a million times."

"Where do you think we're going, Spence? I'm working on it."

Spencer let out a bitter laugh. "Because you were court-ordered to. Not because you want to."

"Yeah, the one time I do something actually reasonable out of anger, I get punished for it," said Alex. Then she shrugged. "But I'd probably end up being forced to go at some point, I guess."

"Probably." Tense silence crept back in, dragging on for way too long before Alex sucked in a loud, irritated breath and tapped her fingers against the wheel. "Wow, it's getting hard to breathe in here. Must be you sucking all the oxygen out."

"It's all the hot air coming from outside, you have the fan on instead of the A/C."

Subtly, Alex glanced at the center console. Sure enough, she didn't have the air conditioning on. "Shit." She jabbed the correct button, and cool air started to circulate. And it did get easier to breathe. "I was trying to make a point."

"If I'm being such a drag, why did you force me to come with?" Spencer finally turned to look at her, nose wrinkling as she no doubt began to pick holes in Alex's logic.

Alex turned to look briefly at her twin, eyebrows raised. "I wanted to talk to you about this break-up. You came into _my_ room, Spence."

Spencer fiddled with a loose string on her sleeve. "I just… needed to tell someone. But I don't want to _talk_ about it."

"Come on," Alex jabbed her with an elbow. "It'll make you feel better."

"Doubt it," groused Spencer. After a moment, she sighed, "Fine. Toby insisted on the truth. He knows I've been acting weird lately, and when I wouldn't tell him why, he gave me an ultimatum. And now I don't have a boyfriend anymore."

The gated perimeter of Radley loomed up ahead, and Alex pursed her lips. "That doesn't make any sense, Spencer. You two have been through way worse."

"Yeah, well, being honest with each other was a big part of it."

"So be honest with him. Tell him everything. And make sure he knows not to do anything stupid with the information or I'll kick his ass."

Spencer gave her the tiniest of smiles but still didn't seem convinced.

Once Alex had pulled into the back parking lot of the sanitarium and parked, they both jumped out of the SUV, Alex palming the keys while Spencer shuffled around to the driver's side.

"Bring me back food," said Alex, tossing the car keys across the hood to her sister, who barely reacted in time to catch them. "Talking through feelings and shit makes me absolutely _famished_ , so I fully expect to see the heavenly blessings of a cheeseburger waiting for me when I get out of this hellmouth."

Spencer rolled her eyes but offered a tired smile. "I'll see what I can do."

An hour later, Alex shuffled out of the sanitarium, immediately squinting at the unexpected burst of sunlight that assaulted her eyes. It'd been muggy and overcast when she went in, and now the sky was a clear, cheery azure. And, from what she could tell from this distance, it seemed Spencer's mood had one-eightied alongside the weather. Her sister was parked a little ways away, but she could clearly make out the figure of her own girlfriend in the front seat.

Alex smirked as she stealthily approached, and since the windows were rolled down she could hear a snippet of their conversation:

"Come on, Spence, it's not that funny," said Aria, shoving Alex's twin playfully on the shoulder. She was laughing, though, and the melodic sound automatically tugged Alex's mouth into a grin.

Meanwhile, Spencer was nearly red in the face she was laughing so hard, and that was certainly a surprise to Alex. Her twin had been so withdrawn and dour only a little while ago, and it made her love Aria that much more knowing she could make Spencer light up like this. "It definitely _is_!" cried Spencer, wiping at her eyes. "You seriously did that?"

"How was I supposed to know that he wouldn't enjoy a purple mohawk?"

Spencer finally contained herself, but almost cracked up again as she looked at Aria. "That's in _cred_ ibly ridiculous."

"Obviously I know that now."

Alex leaned against the passenger side window and cleared her throat. "What's this talk about purple mohawks?"

Aria turned to greet her with a kiss and, pulling away, said, "I tried to give the family cat a mohawk when I was seven. And then I dyed him with food coloring."

"Wow, the poor thing," replied Alex. Then she squinted as if recalling a distant memory. "Although I can remember trying to do something similar with my own hair."

"Dyeing it or shaving it?"

Alex grinned. "I always thought of myself as a future punk rock star, and a colorful mohawk was part of the look."

"So both?"

Nodding, Alex laughed. "To my mother's relief, it was just a phase." She squinted. "Hey, remember that time you had pink—"

" _Yes_ ," huffed Aria, rolling her eyes. "When are you going to let that go?"

"Never. It was adorable." Aria looked like she was about to attack, so Alex kissed her on the temple and clambered into the backseat before she could take a swipe. She reached up to smack Spencer on the shoulder as she buckled her seatbelt. "You were supposed to bring me a burger, Spence, not a tiny vegan."

Spencer looked at Aria, who held up a white paper bag.

Alex snatched it and peeked inside, giving a celebratory fist pump as she laid eyes on the burger. "Hell yes."

* * *

Hanna banged the heel of her hand on Toby's apartment door for the third time, letting out a loud sigh when there was no response. "Really hard to pitchfork someone when they don't answer their door."

Aria, who was examining her cuticles, glanced at the blonde, her brows pulling together. "Isn't that what the torches are usually for?"

"Yeah, but we can't exactly burn down the whole entire Brew, can we?" said Hanna, widening her eyes. "The pity party's downstairs. That's like half our crew."

"Spencer and Ali can take care of themselves," Alex chimed in. Then she pursed her lips in thought, an image of the pair's zombie-like expressions popping into her brain. "Well, maybe not at the moment. But Emily can drag them out."

Aria jabbed her in the shoulder with her pointer finger. "Why are you so eager to start a fire, babe? Did I accidentally start dating a closeted pyromaniac?"

Alex laughed. "I can also kick in the door if I have to. I've always wanted to do that."

"Way to dodge the question," scoffed Hanna, spinning around to bounce her way down the metal stairs. "Come on, let's go ask Em if she's seen him lately."

They followed Hanna back inside, trailing behind as the blonde looked around for the swimmer. Not seeing her behind the counter or waiting tables, they went over to the group's usual nook, where Alex's sister and cousin were slumped on the orange couch, sipping from coffee mugs and feeding off each other's despair. Alison was still processing her mother's affair, and as a result, she looked unusually drained, her eyes ringed in red like she'd been crying instead of sleeping, which wasn't out of the realm of possibility. And Spencer had dissolved into a wreck since the breakup on Monday. They'd both been reluctant to go anywhere, but Alex had literally dragged Spencer by the ankles out of her nest of tissues, ice cream, and breakup movies, and Alison had peeled herself out of bed after some coaxing (or threatening, rather).

"Wooow," sniped Aria as they approached. "The energy in here is just electric. Feels like Friday night to me."

"Yeah." Hanna flopped down into the only armchair, voice dripping in caustic sarcasm. "Can we join the party?"

Ali and Spencer shot them identical glares, which were too pitiful to take seriously. Alex took the empty spot beside Alison, reaching forward to grab her latte off of the table and taking a generous sip. It was cold, but she downed the rest of it anyway. "Seriously," she added. "The commander and lieutenant have gone AWOL and none of us know what to do with ourselves anymore. I say this with no judgment whatsoever, but can you two get your shit together?"

"Commander and lieutenant?" grouched Alison, as Spencer raised a brow.

"That's what the rest of us call you two hard-asses behind your backs," said Aria as she kicked off her flip-flops. Then she situated herself on Alex's lap, stretching her legs across the tops of Ali and Spencer's thighs. "It's really hard to remember not to salute while in your presence."

Spencer scoffed, poking the bottom of Aria's foot. "Yeah, well now you're using your alleged superiors as a footrest. Safe to say Ali and I don't run too tight of a ship."

Alex wrapped her arms around Aria's waist and leaned back with her, and Alison threw a scowl at them. "Can you two stop with your PDA? It's bumming me out."

"Yeah, you're worse than Em and Ali," said Hanna.

"What about me and Ali?" The tanned swimmer appeared out of nowhere, tucking her notepad into her apron pocket, empty tray tucked under her arm and a fresh pot of coffee in hand.

"We're gossiping about your penchant for PDA," filled in Hanna, handing Emily her mug for a refill. "–Thanks, Em. And how Ar and Alex are just as bad, if not worse."

"Ah. Top off, anyone?" A rumble of declination went around the rest of the group, and Emily twisted her mouth in concern, eyes darting to Alex's caffeine-addicted twin. "Spence?"

"I'm fine. But thanks, Em," muttered Spencer.

The barista gave her a sympathetic look, then turned to Alison. "Babe? Doing okay?"

"Yeah, if you mean coffee."

"I don't."

"Then no," huffed Alison. "When does your shift end?"

"Um…" Emily craned her neck to get a look at the wall clock. "Twenty more minutes."

Hanna's eyes lit up suddenly, and she turned to the swimmer. "Hey, Em. Have you seen Toby lately?"

Taking a moment to think, Emily squinted, her face reading as if something strange had just donned on her. "No, actually. Why?"

"Aria, Hanna, and I just went up to his apartment to chew him out, but he's not there or not answering. And Spencer hasn't seen him around in almost a week," answered Alex.

"Now that you mention it, he hasn't stopped in about that long either," said Emily. "He usually comes in in the mornings."

From the end of the couch came Spencer's acidic laugh, and they all looked to her. "He probably just skipped town… like he usually does when there's a problem."

"Spence…" began Aria, but the sound of approaching footsteps had her trailing off.

Alex started at the sight of Wren ambling into the group's vicinity, one hand tucked casually in the pocket of his slacks and the other clutching a paper to-go cup. "Hello, all," he greeted, offering that charming smile of his. "Emily, Hanna, Alison, Spencer, Aria…" He pointed to each of them, only squinting when he locked eyes with Alex. "And Alex. Ferris wheel accident. Kicker of mailbox posts."

"Guilty as charged," said Alex, raising an eyebrow. "Can I help you, Dr. Wren?"

He chuckled. "Yes, actually. I believe you still have my jacket?"

Aria raised her eyebrows, and Alex cleared her throat. "Oh, right! I should probably get that back to you, shouldn't I?"

"Here's my number," he said, digging in his jacket pocket. "You can bring my jacket and we'll get another coffee sometime." After handing her a slip of paper, he blinked, then shook his head, glancing pointedly at Aria, who was giving him her scariest of death stares. "Friendly coffee, of course. Nice seeing you all again."

Once he was gone, Hanna snorted a laugh. "Can you say _awkward_?"

Aria jabbed an elbow into Alex's ribs. " _Dr._ Wren?"

"Okay, ow. And, what? He's a legitimate doctor!"

"Why do you have his jacket?"

"I was upset and cold, so he gave me his coat like a gentleman. We just talked about our problems over coffee!" defended Alex, reassuringly tightening her arms around her girlfriend's waist. "It was basically a therapy session, there's nothing to worry about."

Aria's eyes looked especially green all of a sudden, but she didn't say anything else before Spencer rose to her feet, successfully breaking the tension.

As she brushed past Emily, she muttered, "I'll be right back, guys."

* * *

"Dammit," cried Alex, chucking her controller across the room. It thumped against the wall and then clattered painfully onto the living room's hardwood floor, and a rush of relief swept over her when she saw it hadn't been broken. She decided to leave it there for now and used the remote to click the television off, sinking down into the couch cushions with a sigh. The front door opened then and Alex listened as the person shuffled out of a jacket and stealthily made their way across the room. She caught sight of Spencer sneaking— _staggering_ —toward the stairs. "Where the hell have you been? It's like two in the morning, Spence."

Spencer flinched and turned toward her, face scrunched with guilt. "Don't tell mom."

"Look who you're talking to," said Alex, yawning. "I'm just curious. Where in the world has Ms. Goody Two-Shoes been on this fine Friday evening?

Her sister rolled her eyes and came over to flop down onto the couch, and Alex didn't miss how unsteady she looked, how glazed her eyes were. "I was just, you know, _out_. Having fun."

Alex leaned over and took a deep sniff of the air in Spencer's immediate vicinity, wrinkling her nose at the sharp bite of sweat and alcohol. "You smell like a bar."

"It was a pub."

"Classy."

Spencer landed a clumsy punch on her shoulder. "I met Wren there. We had a few drinks, talked… and I may have kissed him at one point. Did you know his dad was in a place like Radley when he died? Kind of like Toby's mom." She pouted, brow knitting together in thought. "You think I attract damaged, men, Al?"

"Wait, wait, wait. You _kissed_ him?"

Her sister shot her a sly, rather uncharacteristic grin. "Duh! I mean, that accent! I wanted to do more than kiss him."

"Ew," muttered Alex, thinking of the time they went to a club with their friends and her sister had one too many vodka sodas. Long story short, she tried to stick her tongue down a guy's throat, started dancing on tables with Hanna, and got them all kicked out. "I forgot you get aggressively flirty when drunk."

Spencer didn't acknowledge that, continuing her rant instead. "But he said he didn't want to take advantage of me, right? Even though I wasn't even drunk or anything. I really thought he was into me!" She sighed heavily, and Alex got up to get her a bottle of water from the kitchen. When she came back, Spencer chugged half of it and then threw her hands up in exasperation. "Am I that fucked up, Alex? I mean, first the other Alex got mad at me over that stupid tennis clinic, Andrew just wanted sex, Toby probably hates me, and now I can't even get Wren…" Suddenly her sister was crying. "Why doesn't anyone _like_ me?"

"It'll be okay, Spence," said Alex, sympathetically patting her shoulder. "Just let it all out. All your boyfriends have sucked, alright? You'll find someone better."

"But I miss Toby."

"I know," she placated, helping Spencer off the couch. "Come on."

"I hate him," Spencer whined, leaning heavily against Alex.

"I know it, Spence. He's an asshole."

"But I _love_ him."

Alex sighed, steadying her twin as they climbed the stairs. "I know. Drink your water."

Spencer drank her water and then sniffled loudly. "It's not _fair_."

"Believe me, Spencer, I _know_. And it's only been a week. Give it time."

"Time is stupid."

Alex shrugged. She couldn't help but agree with that.

* * *

 **A/N: Alrighty, so I sprinkled in some Sparia, Toby is off the grid, and Aria is getting jealous of Wren but Wrencer is apparently happening (gross).**

 **Oh, and I do want to say that I am going to finish this story, even if it takes a billion years. It's all planned out and I even have ideas for a sequel, but it's just getting the words down that's tough right now. So try to bear with me, and I can't thank you enough for reading! I guess give me about two weeks to crank out another update :)**


	13. Bed, Bathrooms, and Interruptions

**A/N: Honestly, stop trusting me. Well, at least when I give a specific update time, cuz apparently it's all BS. But the wait is over... again. Is sorry even enough anymore? If not, this chapter is a whopping 5,000 words and it's mostly just Arlex fluff to boot. (THEY DO IT IN THIS CHAPTER, GUYS. YOU'RE WELCOME. PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR BEING AWFUL AT UPDATING.) (Also WARNING: I may have chickened out of writing actual smutty sex, but clothes DO come off before the fade to black. So just be careful, guys lol)**

 **In other news, thanks to WolfyVannah5 for favoriting and following LITERALLY EVERYTHING. If you're reading, you're a champ and totally blew up my email. I was getting tired of spam mail, so all the notifications really made my day. Also, Boris Yeltsin, thank you for consistently reviewing. It helps a lot :) And thanks to all you lurkers out there for simply taking the time out of your day to read the trash that I write. You know who you are.**

 **Now, without further ado:**

* * *

Alex felt the bed dip as someone laid down beside her, the blankets shifting, but she didn't make any effort to drag her eyelids open, still drifting in that heavy place between asleep and awake, the last hazy pieces of a dream distracting her. A finger tapped her on the face and she groaned, stretching an arm out to find something to use as a bludgeon. She found a pillow and swung it in the intruder's general direction, felt it make contact, heard the bell-like laugh that the playful assault prompted. A smile spread across her face at the sound, a pleasant warmth flooding her chest.

She loved that laugh.

Cracking her eyelids, Alex saw Aria and reached to pull her closer like a teddy bear, tucking Aria's head under her chin. "Well, hello there."

"Hi," whispered Aria, kissing her softly on the collarbone. "Your mom let me in. She just left."

Alex twisted her mouth at the mention of her mother, who was still being an ice queen after the confrontation about Peter. That woman could hold a grudge like nobody's business. "I'm surprised she didn't chase you off the property." Aria and the rest of their friends knew about the argument and what Mary had said (or, more accurately, what she hadn't said), so she only felt the girl's sympathetic hum in response.

"She's still mad at you guys?"

"Naturally," sighed Alex. "Anyway, I don't really wanna think about it anymore. What are you doing here, Bird?"

Aria wriggled out of her grasp, pulling back to look at her, and rested a palm on Alex's cheek, where her burn scars were nearly faded away. "I was thinking we could go on another date, seeing as our first ended in disaster."

"Okay," said Alex, ready to close her eyes and let the feeling of Aria's thumb stroking her cheekbone lull her back to sleep. "Where are we headed? Do I need to pull out my best dress?"

"Nah, I was actually thinking we could go to the zoo. Very casual."

"You're not afraid Fitz will set the animals loose on us?" Alex lifted her brows. "Snakes? Bears? Killer penguins?"

Aria shrugged, shooting her a grin. "I like snakes. Not sure about bears or killer penguins, but I'm willing to risk it."

"No way. You like snakes?" questioned Alex, eyebrows shooting even higher. "My god, you really are perfect. I _love_ snakes."

"I heard Ambrose Pavilion has a new boa."

Alex practically threw the covers off the both of them and sat up, not even caring that she didn't have pants on. "Now we're definitely going, I have to hold that bastard."

Aria laughed, tugging at the back of Alex's shirt. Then she sat up, too, pressed a hand against Alex's chest and pushed her back down, straddling her waist. "I forgot that you don't wear pants to bed."

"Oh. Oops," managed Alex, breath hitched, just before Aria captured her lips in a kiss and melted against her. She felt the numerous rings on Aria's fingers as a trembling hand brushed her side, her hip, hesitating only a moment before running along her bare thigh, and she could feel Aria's heart hammering, trying to force its way out of its cage of bone, like Alex's was. Head spinning, Alex pushed her hands underneath Aria's top and dragged them up and around and along the ridge of her spine, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to never stop–

"Oh, shit," came a groggy voice, breaking them apart, and they both turned to see Spencer leaning against the doorframe, shielding her eyes with her hand. "Jeez Alex, learn how to close your door. There are hinges for a reason."

"What do you need, Spence?" said Alex, trying to bite back her irritation as Aria rolled off of her.

Spencer lifted a shoulder and massaged her temples with her thumb and forefinger. "Where's the Advil? It's not in the medicine cabinet."

"Here." Alex pushed herself up on weak arms and nabbed the bottle of painkillers from her bedside table, shaking them so her sister could hear, and Spencer kept her eyes covered as she slouched toward Alex's outstretched hand, her face tinged pink.

"Thanks," she murmured, then after a beat of hesitation, "Good morning, Aria."

Alex snorted as her girlfriend stretched her lips into an uncomfortable grimace. "Morning, Spencer."

Spencer gave her a courteous nod and then promptly turned on her heel, pulling the door shut as she left. The pair shared a look once she was gone, and then burst into laughter. Aria contained herself long enough to ask, "What's up with her? She looked like crap."

"Hangover," answered Alex, taking a moment to decide how much she could tell Aria without potentially pissing Spencer off. "Okay, don't tell her I told you and definitely don't tell anyone else, but she went out with Wren last night."

A strange look crossed Aria's face, but all she did was curiously widen her eyes. "Really? Is she okay?"

"Poor thing's worried she's unlovable or something because Wren wouldn't sleep with her," Alex confided, laying back with her hands laced on the back of her head. "I'm just glad I can trust him not to take advantage."

Aria nodded, lips pressed together. "We definitely don't need any more of that."

"Hey... don't worry about Fitz right now, okay?" said Alex, reaching to grab Aria's hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "We're going to the zoo to have fun, and if anybody tries to interfere with that, I'll kill them." Jumping into action, she swung her feet off the bed and went to find pants. "Now come on, I've got a snake to hold."

* * *

"This is amazing," said Alex, just as the zoo's animal handler lifted Aria's camera and pointed it at them. She hefted the snake in her hands and grinned just as Aria stood on tiptoe to kiss her cheek, and they held the pose until the picture was taken. "I can die happy."

Aria laughed, and Alex carefully passed the snake back to the handler. The line to the booth set up just outside Ambrose Reptile Pavilion was pitifully short, even though it was Saturday and the rest of the zoo was swamped with tourists. Apparently nobody wanted to hold a snake, which wasn't really a bad thing for Alex and Aria, seeing as how they'd been talking reptiles for the past fifteen minutes, taking turns letting the boa constrictor wrap around their arms (and Alex had fallen even more in love with Aria for it, if that was even possible).

"Did I tell you I used to have a snake?" Alex asked as they left the booth and headed toward the bathrooms to wash their hands. She smiled fondly at the memory of the milk snake she got in the third grade.

Aria turned to look at her as she pushed into the bathroom. "No way, really?"

"Yeah, named him Clyde. He was, like, my best friend when I was a kid—I mean other than Spencer, that is. But the summer before sixth grade, Spence finally had Charlotte release him into the wild."

The shorter girl's face lit up with laughter as they made their way to the sinks, but she gave Alex a sympathetic pout in the mirror. "Aww. I mean, I get if Spencer's scared of snakes, but that's kind of a dick move."

Alex returned the look with a rueful smirk. "She wasn't just scared of snakes, I used to chase her around the house with him. I was the one being an asshole, per usual."

"Well, asshole or not, you're mine." Aria winked, flicking soapy water at her. Alex wiped the droplets on her cheek off with her sleeve and fired back, earning another laugh from her girlfriend.

Unable to suppress the grin that cracked her face open, Alex shook the water from her hands and turned to tear a paper towel from the dispenser. Maybe this date wasn't going to be a complete disaster. Still, they'd only just arrived. There was still plenty of time for Fitz to appear and fuck things up. The thought rattled her confidence.

Aria seemed to sense her shift in mood as they dried their hands, and attempted to steady her by linking their fingers together. "Hey."

"Hey what?" said Alex, focused on her struggle to take her own advice and not worry about anything.

Aria swung their joined hands, pushing up on tiptoe to kiss her chin, the tip of her nose, her mouth. "Sixth grade was when we first met, remember? Ali just walked right up and recruited me to sit with you guys on the first day of school."

"Yeah, I remember," snorted Alex. "'Aria, the new kid', the missing piece in Alison's master plan to form a do-it-yourself Breakfast Club. She already had a brain and a rebel by default, and after plucking an athlete and a fashionista out of obscurity, all she needed was–"

"The basket case?" Aria grinned.

"I was gonna say the artsy, weird one, but if you prefer basket case…?" teased Alex, leaning in for another kiss.

"Do you think I'm weird?" murmured Aria as they broke apart, a genuinely curious look on her face.

"I think you're a lot of things. Let's see... brave, creative, passionate, smart, beautiful, lovely, absolutely _stunning_ ," Alex smiled, lowering her voice to match Aria's, though she could hardly hear with the way her heartbeat was drowning out everything else. This time her confidence was being shaken by a different kind of fear, the kind she'd felt in the hospital when Spencer had none too subtly gauged her feelings for Aria — _You really do love her_. "Even weird, but I think that comes with being unapologetically yourself, which I also admire."

"You're weird, too, then," breathed Aria, playfully nudging Alex's foot with her own. "I mean, you wear these boots everywhere like you're always ready to go to war. And even though you talk a lot of smack, I know that you're also a lovable goofball. You're brave and selfless. Really intense, too, like _scary_ intense. A little rocky and jagged in places, and maybe kind of an asshole, as you put it—and I mean that _fondly_ , by the way—but so what? And I agree that being unapologetically yourself, however dysfunctional that may be, is something to be admired."

If Alex was intense, Aria could match her with the passion she put behind her words. Aria could weave a tapestry of meaning with syllables alone, could take her own intensity of emotion and turn it into something tangible. She could make smoke signals with her own personal fire, whereas Alex felt like she was burning out of control sometimes.

"Damn," was all she could say, her throat embarrassingly tight. She tried to laugh it off, but it was too late—the waterworks were starting. "So does that make _me_ the basket case then?"

Aria's expression morphed into one of concern, and she extracted her fingers from Alex's only to take her face in her hands, brushing the tears away with her thumbs. "Babe?"

Alex hiccuped a noise that was half-sob, half-laugh, and rested her forehead against Aria's. "It's nothing, I just… I love you. And I've never… I don't… I don't know how to _deal_ with it. I don't know how to put it into words. I guess... it scares me. Yeah. I love you so much that it scares the hell out of me, Aria."

Aria didn't flinch, the tiniest of smiles quirking her lips instead. She kept her voice to a soothing whisper, patient, calm. "What scares you?"

Brow furrowing, Alex thought hard about her answer, trying to pick through her jumble of feelings. It felt like doing calculus problems. Her head began to hurt. _Yeah, what scares you, Alex? What scares you about love?_

"I'm scared that you'll get hurt or that I'll lose you," she whispered. But she knew that that was the easy answer, the obvious one. "And I'm scared that… that I can't make it clear enough how much I love you." She let out a watery chuckle. "Words are hard."

"Then don't use words." Aria broke into a full-blown smile, tilting her face upward to connect their mouths.

There was that feeling again; she never wanted to stop, never wanted to disconnect from Aria. But after a few lingering kisses that had her buckling at the knees, she reeled herself in, fully aware that they were in a public bathroom. A mother and her kids could wander innocently through the door at any time. They'd already nearly traumatized Spencer this morning.

Aria laced her fingers on the back of Alex's neck as they pulled apart, a dazzled expression on her face like the sun was in her eyes. She grinned shyly. "You know, I wasn't going to tell you, but I got really jealous the other day when Wren showed up."

"Jealous?" Alex snorted. "You were _jealous_ of Wren?"

"I had every right to be. You still have his jacket, apparently, and you called him _Dr_. Wren. Alex, he gave you his number! He was very obviously flirting with you. How could I not get a little bit territorial? I told you: you're mine. And I lov–"

Just then the door swung open and they were interrupted for the second time that day. It was an older woman, and she gave them a sidelong look as she went to find a stall, her lip curling in an uninhibited show of disgust that had Alex's hands tightening into fists. She scowled back at her, wanting to beat this judgemental old hag into the ground—

"Lex." Aria distracted her from her violent fantasies with a suffocating kiss, killing two birds with one stone as the woman scoffed and averted her eyes, finally minding her own goddamn business. Her girlfriend dragged her out of the bathroom, linking their arms as they got back on the tourist-crowded path. "I'm proud," teased Aria, leaning against her shoulder. "You didn't make any effort to punch that lady in the throat. Seems like those anger management classes are working out."

"Trust me, I was thinking about it," said Alex. "If she had said one word, I would have lunged."

The shorter girl laughed fondly, pulling them to a stop. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Love me," responded Alex, bending for a kiss. She squinted, their previous conversation returning to her. "I think you were just claiming ownership, in fact. I'm officially your responsibility, breaking old lady's hips or not. Remind me what you were saying about being territorial?"

Aria smirked. "If Wren had stuck around for one more second, I would've broken _his_ hips."

"Well, you are truly and utterly out of control, Aria Montgomery. Welcome to the club."

* * *

Aria's lips worked up the column of her throat, under her jaw, sucked at the space just below her ear, and Alex bit her lip to contain the moan that was threatening to escape her throat, reminding herself that they were already in danger of getting busted. They were skipping fourth period (and maybe fifth period, too, if Aria kept this up), although for once Alex hadn't been the one to suggest they play hooky to make out. Aria's eyes had darkened when Alex mentioned that she took Wren's jacket to him the day before, and then she was dragging her into a stall in the ladies' room to mark her territory.

But Alex wasn't complaining, not while they were wrapped around each other like this. Not while Alex was raking her fingers through her girlfriend's thick, dark hair or reaching down to feel the curve of her hip. Not while Aria was grinding down onto the thigh Alex had thrust between her legs, one hand wandering up her shirt, the other draped across her shoulders to pull her impossibly closer as she kissed her neck. This was heaven. There was nowhere else she'd rather be.

"Alex…" panted Aria, lips brushing her ear. "I really wish we were somewhere else right now. I want you... so fucking bad."

Okay, scratch that. She'd rather be somewhere private, somewhere with a bed, somewhere where she could take her time and make Aria utterly and absolutely melt.

"We could…" she struggled a moment to catch her breath, leaning her head back against the stall door. Aria took advantage of the vulnerability the movement exposed and reattached her lips to Alex's neck with bruising force, nails raking lightly against her stomach, which didn't help her to think any clearer. "Baby, wait," she tried, sliding her hands up Aria's back to grab at her shoulders. Reluctantly, she created a few inches of space between them, just enough to where she could regain the cognizance to get her words straight. "We could… go to my house.…"

Aria blinked dazedly at her, her lips swollen, looking like someone had shot her full of morphine. "Can we?" she asked plaintively, practically falling forward against Alex to steal another sloppy kiss. "Please?"

"Hmm… yeah. Yeah, we can," Alex whispered into their shared pocket of breath. She cracked a mischievous grin. "Nobody's home."

Not giving Alex the time to say another word, Aria pulled her out of the stall, lacing their fingers together. Their palms were slick with sweat, and Alex caught a glimpse of them in the mirror: all mussed hair, smudged makeup, and rumpled clothes. Strands of Alex's hair were stuck to her neck, caught in the sticky remnants of Aria's lip gloss, and Aria's eyes were clear and widened in a way that suggested she was gearing up to perform a high-wire stunt. They both looked so very alive, and Alex decided that this was her favorite side of Aria so far—the one that made her heart pick up its laboring pace in all the right ways, the one that she'd eagerly follow out of an airborne plane (with or without a parachute, really), the one that wasn't afraid of anything or anyone.

Damn, she had good taste.

They slipped into the hallway and practically skipped toward the nearest exit, too caught up in their own chemical bliss to notice a familiar quartet heading in their direction, whispering urgently amongst themselves. Aria pulled up short when she saw them, and their friends' eyebrows lifted with surprise at the exact same time, snapping out of their hushed conversation. "Hey, guys," said Alex's girlfriend, as casual as can be as they approached. "What's going on? Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just talking," replied Hanna, lips tilting into a smirk. "And I don't think I need to ask how you two are."

"Fine, you caught us. We were–"

"Canoodling?" quipped Spencer dryly, with a roll of her eyes. "How shocking."

Aria swung their hands and bounced on the balls of her feet, obviously growing impatient with the conversation, and Alex's lips quirked in amusement at her urgency. She was so goddamn adorable that Alex started considering if the backseat of Aria's car was big enough to get comfortable in… or if it was too risky to go at it under the bleachers… or if maybe they should go back to that bathroom stall after all….

"Well at least we have a good excuse for skipping fourth period," said Aria, shooting Alex a conspiratorial little glance that made her clear her throat awkwardly. "What did you guys have to skip class to talk about?"

"Spencer went out with Wren," blurted Hanna. "Was _rejected_ –" (she made air quotes here, rolling her eyes) "–and needed to talk. Not really a crisis, but all of us were bored anyway."

The others nodded along, and then the blonde clapped her hands once and straightened into a kinetic posture, apparently ready to leave them be. "But you two are _busy_ , so we'll talk to you later, okay? Have fun. Be safe. Remember to give me _all_ the juicy details tomorrow–"

"Thank you, Hanna," interrupted Alex, cheeks growing warm despite herself. She tightened her grip on Aria's hand. "We'll see you guys later. Come on, babe."

"Aww..." cooed Emily.

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" Hanna said proudly in response, a hand pressed over her heart.

And Alison called after them, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

As they parted ways, their friends waggled their fingers and batted their lashes until Alex had enough and flipped them all the bird.

Ten minutes later, Alex and Aria were stumbling up the stairs to Alex's bedroom in the empty house, practically unable to keep their hands off each other. Sex, in general, wasn't foreign territory for Alex, at least with guys, but it felt new and exciting and downright scary with Aria, exactly like her first time had been. This felt just as important as losing her virginity, somehow, and she thought that maybe it was because she was allowing herself to want more than just a way to get off.

The awkward fumbling and grunts of apology that soundtracked her first foray into sexuality were something she usually preferred to forget, but it had been special regardless. After that, sex had quickly become nothing more than a recreational sport or, at worst, a job to her. But with Aria leading her upstairs she was feeling as sweaty and vulnerable as she had as a curious fourteen-year-old, messing around with a guy that had only half an idea of what he was doing. The difference now was her confidence in herself, and her trust in Aria. It was a completely different kind of nervous that she was feeling—skydiving nervous, a diving-headfirst-into-the-unknown kind of nervous, but she'd never been more certain of anything in her life.

She loved Aria, and that felt a whole lot different than the fleeting cycle of _feel bliss, get bored, quit_ that had marked her past relationships. She wanted this to last, she wanted to satisfy Aria before herself, and she wanted to keep her satisfied. If it became a challenge in the future, she was willing to change it up, but she was hoping that that wouldn't be a problem because she planned to explore and keep exploring what made Aria feel the best. Most of the boys she'd had were easy, were reactive to the same kinds of talk and touches, and more often than not, her primary concern in bed with them was making sure she got something out of it first and foremost. It was like a game, a race to see who finished first. But she didn't want to race with Aria, because they had all the time in the world to get this right.

They made sure that they locked the door this time, and Aria pushed her against it and stole her breath with a kiss while they stepped out of shoes and socks. Crossing to the bed, Alex was gentle with laying Aria down, making sure to kiss her with as much passion as humanly possible as she settled over her. But Aria had other plans and hooked a leg around the small of Alex's back, swiftly rolling them so that she was on top instead.

Alex bit back a snarky comment about how eager Aria was when her girlfriend sat back and made a show out of taking her top off. Earlier, she'd found Aria's urgency cute and rather reminiscent of a kid in line for a ride at Disneyland, but _this_ was anything but cute. This Aria was new, a branch-off from the bright-eyed, fearlessly alive Aria she'd seen in the mirror earlier. This Aria was just as confident, but sharper, a commandant instead of a paratrooper. Alex wasn't about to tease her, wouldn't _dare_ , but the challenge in Aria's eyes was triggering a certain rebelliousness in her. She'd never been one to yield to authority, after all.

"Damn," she said, pushing herself up on her elbows as Aria tossed her shirt somewhere to the side. She let her eyes wander, feeling greedy as she took in the perfect skin and beckoning curves that she'd always had difficulty tearing her gaze from. "Just… goddamn, Aria, you're so fucking perfect."

Dark hazel eyes sparkling with pride, Aria knotted her fingers in Alex's collar and tugged. Alex sat up, so enthralled by the girl in her lap that she almost forgot to help her out with the task of taking her own shirt off. She let out a small breath of a laugh as Aria threw that to the side, too, and received a playful wink in response. Aria shoved her back against the bed and then pressed against her, the heat of her skin stealing her breath away, and she kissed along Alex's jawline before moving to plant wet kisses down her neck, against her collarbone, between her breasts and along the planes of her stomach.

"Alex Drake, you are built…" Alex grabbed a fistful of the sheets beneath her and moaned as Aria reached the spot just below her navel, the sensitive skin there fluttering beneath her working mouth. "...like a goddess."

"And once again, you outdo me in eloquence," rasped Alex, grinning.

Aria smirked up at her as she undid the button of her jeans and then scooted them down her hips, and Alex's kicked them the rest of the way off, eyes fluttering shut as lips pressed briefly against the inside of her thigh. Aria trailed her kisses back up until she reached Alex's mouth again, and Alex took the opportunity to explore, running the pads of her fingertips along Aria's spine, following it up to the clasp of her bra.

Aria nuzzled almost shyly into her neck as she unhooked it, and Alex froze in response.

"You okay?" she found herself whispering. "Aria, is this… is this alright?"

"Definitely. I just..." Aria huffed out a rather embarrassed chuckle, breath warm on her neck. "I love you, Alex." She pulled back just enough to where Alex could see the genuine conviction in her expression. "I love you so much."

"No fancy poetry?" teased Alex.

"Shut up." Aria pinched her on the shoulder and then sat back to pull her bra all the way off.

Alex gawked for a moment before Aria threw the lacy garment in her face. "Hey!" she cried out, laughing as she swatted it away. "I was enjoying that view."

Aria stuck her tongue out, nose wrinkling in that exceptionally adorable way that it did, and Alex lunged forward, grabbing her around the waist. Aria let out a squeak of surprise as Alex swung her into the mattress and pinned her there. Triumphant but wanting to waste no more time, Alex whispered into her ear, "I love you, too, by the way."

Then she trailed a languid finger down the length of her girlfriend's body, keeping her touch as light as she could, satisfied when Aria's breath caught. "And I want you to tell me..." Following the ridge of Aria's hipbone to where it disappeared beneath her waistband, Alex hesitated only a moment before slipping her hand into Aria's skirt and stroking the damp fabric that she found there. "...exactly what you need me to do."

Aria's hips jerked upward, her hands scrambling along Alex's back for purchase. She dug her nails in, and Alex sucked in a sharp breath as they scraped against her shoulder blades. "I need you," Aria forced out, breathless, "to _fuck_ me."

Alex let out something akin to a growl at the raw desire in her girlfriend's voice, the words stirring something needy and primal in her gut, and she quite eagerly obliged her...

* * *

 **A/N: So you'll have to use your imagination for the rest cuz that was my first attempt at writing anything even remotely close to smutty and I'm SHEEPISH about it. How'd I do? I listened to Dangerous Woman on a loop and sweated onto my keyboard, but this is tame compared with some other things I've seen. But if you guys are just really itching for legit Arlex smut, let me know and I'll try to push past my immense discomfort to write some in a later chapter or separate one-shot. That also opens up the opportunity for Sparia smut, soooo... ;D**

 **Either way, let me know what you thought overall in a review if you feel so inclined, and see you whenever I get the next chapter done!**

 **(Side Note: did anyone watch the Perfectionist premier? Is it any good? Any sign of the bullshittery IMK inflicted on PLL? Because I've been avoiding it like the plague so I don't fall in love and get exposed to another Ravenswood situation lol... but I might still watch it)**


	14. A Bad Omen

**A/N: This chapter is brought to you by two Redbulls and a ton of panicked screaming. Every time I sat down to write, it felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall,** **so this update is basically a miracle. Seriously,** **I wrote most of this today in a lucky burst of inspiration. It feels clunky and it's pretty short, but I'm trying to move things along as best I can. Oh, and it's barely edited either, so you might have to bleach your eyes afterward. Maybe the next chapter will be better :)**

* * *

The next day at lunch, they held hands under the table. Aria kept sneaking glances at her, occasionally initiating a round of footsie or two, and Alex couldn't keep the big, stupid grin that had settled firmly onto her lips sometime last night off of her face. It was like some invisible barrier had been dissolved between them, and they were sharing some huge secret that only they knew about, despite the fact that their friends were clued in and kept trying to draw them out of their private universe.

"I guess we should at least be glad you two aren't feeding each other," Emily said, once Alison snapping her fingers at them had brought them to attention.

Immediately, Hanna's eyebrows shot upward and she opened her grinning mouth, obviously on the verge of spewing innuendo. "They were–"

Spencer threw a salt packet at her to cut her off. "Inappropriate," she chastised.

"I didn't even get a chance to say anything," countered Hanna. She picked up the salt-packet-turned-projectile and tore it open to sprinkle over her sad, wilted, school lunch version of a salad. "And don't act so superior. Your mind went there, too, Spencer."

Alex's twin went red, but she didn't argue.

Alison scoffed. "You two are the straightest people on the planet, are you even allowed to make those kinds of jokes?"

"I dunno, Ali," quipped Aria, nudging Alex's foot with her own again. "The _straightest_ people on the _planet_? Spencer and Hanna? It's kind of a stretch, don't you think?"

"Right," Alison mimicked smacking her hand against her forehead, acting like she was just now remembering something. "Duh. Spencer and her menswear. Hanna with her pink drinks."

The pair in question both blurted their indignant cries simultaneously:

"It's a _statement_!"

"That was _one time_!"

"Still gayer than anything one of us with an actual girlfriend has ever done," insisted the queen bee.

Bristling, Spencer straightened her spine and her mouth fell open in what was sure to be an argument. "You mean doing those things while having legitimate reasons— _besides_ fluid sexuality—is gayer than actually eating–"

" _N_ _ope_." Hanna slapped a hand over the adamant brunette's mouth before she could continue. "Look who's being inappropriate now, Spence." She turned to the rest of them, her hand muffling Spencer's protests. "I'll have to apologize for my friend—she's a bit dense. And doesn't know the meaning of _hypocrisy_ , apparently."

Rolling her eyes, Spencer ripped Hanna's hand from her mouth. "Do _you_ even know what that means?" she tossed at the blonde.

The rest of them just sat back and watched the intense staring contest play out between their allegedly straight friends. Hanna picked up a baby carrot and munched haughtily on it. Spencer crossed her arms.

Finally, the blonde blurted, "Okay, _rude_. I've been reading lately and expanding my vocabulary. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a complete dunderhead, _Spencer_."

Spencer looked impressed. Maybe even a little proud. "Fair enough."

After a silent beat, Alex furrowed her brow and kneaded her chin thoughtfully. "See, _this_ is why we're confused. There's this _tension_ between the two of you."

"Mhm, yeah," Alison murmured her agreement. "It's like, 'will they or won't they?'"

Aria squinted. "Hencer? No, no, no, _Spanna_. The ship name is _definitely_ Spanna."

"Guys," Emily said with a slight chuckle, obviously exhausted by their teasing. "Leave them alone. Come on. Wouldn't you feel like the biggest assholes if all this joking around actually pushed them even further into the closet?"

"Okay, but neither of us are 'in the closet' to begin with," emphasized Spencer, with stern air quotes.

"I mean theoretically," Emily amended.

They all took their hands off the topic at Emily's casual beckoning, even Alex, who would usually jump on a chance to tease her twin. She reminded herself that now was not the best time, anyway. Spencer was laughing a lot more lately, with Wren around especially, but there was still something hollow behind her eyes. Something fragile that Alex didn't want to rattle, lest her sister collapse inward again.

Naturally, the universe decided to take that decision out of Alex's hands.

 _Tap. Tap. Tap._

Along came the devil herself.

It was like the temperature dropped twenty degrees as Jenna appeared beside their table, and each of their expressions visibly hardened. But the tension in their jaws now had less to do with the guilt that came with blinding Toby's stepsister and more to do with knowing that Jenna was in Fitz's pocket.

"Sorry to interrupt," said Jenna curtly. "I know this is the fun table." If her sunglasses weren't blocking her eyes, Alex thought she might be rolling them.

"Oh, it's no problem, Jenna," lied Alison, with thinly-veiled hostility. "What can we help you with?"

A crooked smile spread across the raven-haired girl's face, and she folded her hands on top of her cane like it was some regal staff and she was overseeing a throne room. "Actually, I need to speak to Spencer. If we could step into the hallway, it's news that might best be taken alone."

"What?" snapped Alex's twin. "If it's about Toby, go ahead. You can tell me right here."

Hanna practically growled. "Yeah, like we'd let her go off alone with you, anyway."

"So territorial," Jenna simpered, before tacking on, "like a pack of dogs." Then, she shrugged. "Very well. I thought it would interest you to know, Spencer, that Toby is officially a missing person. I filed a report with the police yesterday."

They all cast their gazes to Spencer, who only blinked rapidly. "So what?" she said finally, fiercely recollecting her composure. "He probably has a job in another county or something."

"Maybe," conceded Jenna. "But he's usually in touch with you when that happens. Since you don't know where he is either, I can't be totally sure he's not lying in a ditch somewhere. It's been more than a week. You can't tell me you're not worried."

Spencer looked especially pale all of a sudden. "Yeah," she murmured, with surprisingly less venom. "Yeah. Thank you for telling me, Jenna."

The devil excused herself then, with an odd lack of snarky comments left in her wake. They each sat there in silence for a moment, until Alison muttered, "'like a pack of dogs'? Seriously, how many subtle ways can she find to call us bitches?"

An uneasy chuckle went around their now somber group, but it passed right over Alex's twin.

There was a look like broken glass in Spencer's eyes.

* * *

When Alex got home that afternoon, she fully intended on going up to her room and flopping onto her bed for a nap, maybe texting Aria until she fell asleep. Her plan was going well until she walked past Spencer's ajar door and made the mistake of glancing into the room.

Spencer was sitting on her bed, gnawing at her thumbnail as she scanned the screen of her laptop with weary eyes. Her textbooks from school were stacked neatly on her desk, so Alex figured it wasn't homework she was stressing about. Deciding she should check up on her after the breaking news about Toby, Alex rapped her knuckles on the door.

"Hey," she said when Spencer didn't look up. "Stress case."

Spencer finally offered her a glance and a tired smirk. "Yeah, Al, what is it? I'm busy."

Alex leaned against the doorjamb and folded her arms casually. She wished she could see whatever Spencer was so intently working on, but she knew that prying wouldn't get her answers when it came to her twin. No kicking down the door when it's made out of steel. "You need anything?"

"Like what?" Spencer finally took a moment to actually look at her, apparently curious about the answer.

She didn't know exactly, so with a shrug, Alex opened her arms. "I dunno. A hug?"

Spencer scoffed and her attention went right back to her laptop. "I'm good, Alex. Really."

"Are you sure?" Alex couldn't help but prod. Something felt… _off_. "The thing about Toby, I just–" She shook her head as if to clear it. "I have a bad feeling."

It was like some kind of sixth sense. Call it intuition or whatever, _something_ was prickling at the back of Alex's neck. And with that _look_ in Spencer's eyes…

"You know what," said Spencer, a bit impatiently. She rubbed her eyes with a fist. Yawned. "Coffee. I could use my regular from the Brew if you really want to help."

Alex surprised even herself when she perked up at the request, thoughts of curling up for a nap long gone. Something about Spencer's entire demeanor had shifted, and Alex suddenly felt like grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. Because maybe that would fix her.

But if she didn't have to do that… if all Spencer needed was coffee… _g_ _reat_. Maybe running this little errand would banish the uneasiness that had settled over Alex. Maybe the scaffolding behind Spencer's eyes would steady itself again, once she had a stimulant in her system. Like greasing cogs that had ground to a halt. _Simple_.

Maybe this would make things okay.

And, _god_ , things had been _very_ okay just a few hours ago. The air felt so much lighter at lunch, their worries momentarily forgotten as they bantered, and then Jenna had swept in like a bad smell. She landed in their line of sight like a raven, like some harbinger of death. A bad omen.

Things had been downright blissful even before lunch, yesterday, when it was just herself and Aria. When they were both thoroughly exhausted, they'd used their remaining hours of alone time to lay in each other's company. Quietly, their legs tangled together and eyes locked. Aria's hand had rested on the side of Alex's face, her thumb brushing lightly across her cheekbone, fingers moving to trace her lips, the bridge of her nose, her eyelids. They'd ghosted over the faint burn scars at her temples, and Alex had asked, " _Do you think we'll be okay?_ "

" _I don't know_ ," her girlfriend had whispered. " _Maybe not_. _But maybe I don't care_. _There's now, at least_."

Not really one to waste time worrying herself to death, Alex had agreed. She'd agreed that _now_ was the most important, despite the imminent doom they probably had an appointment with. She'd kissed Aria's knuckles and told her, " _I like now_."

Things had been _perfect_ before they fell apart again. Now, all Alex needed to do was try and fix it.

 _Coffee_. Spencer needed coffee.

"Supersized drip, coming up," she said, like some overeager intern. She snapped her fingers and pointed at Spencer. "Anything else? A bagel? Wait, do you even like bagels?"

Spencer looked at her like she'd grown another head. "Bagels are fine, but I don't… I don't really want one. Are _you_ okay? You don't normally offer to–"

"I know, I just… I just need to do something, okay?" She turned on her heel to march away, but Spencer called her back.

"Alex, wait!"

Alex looked over her shoulder. "Yeah?"

"Use my wallet. Hell, get yourself something while you're at it, you psycho," she said fondly. Her voice softened with something like sincerity, though her eyes were heavy. "And thanks."

Alex nodded, then charged away, stampeding down the stairs. She glanced down at herself in the entryway, making sure she had shoes on. And pants. Sneakers— _check._ Jeans— _check._ She slid on sunglasses and a hoodie, and grabbed Spencer's wallet out of her purse, deciding to just use it instead of digging her own out of her backpack. They had the same face, anyway.

The drive to the Brew took all of five minutes, and her wait in line took even less time. She decided not to get anything since the bagels on display looked pretty stale, so she just ordered Spencer's coffee. She paid for it with Spencer's card and trotted back outside, on a mission. But as she stepped out onto the sidewalk, she was intercepted by a familiar lean form and ample amounts of boyish charm. "Spencer, you _are_ here! I've been calling you."

Before she could even open her mouth, Wren had smacked a kiss on her temple, and when she turned to tell him he had the wrong twin, his lips were suddenly on hers. Startled, she kissed back for a moment, until her senses came back to her and she pushed him off, her free hand splayed against his muscled chest.

" _Woah_ , buddy. Alex. Not Spencer," she blurted. She lifted her sunglasses to show off the tale-tell heavy eyeliner she usually distinguished herself with. "Just playing coffee mule."

"My mistake," he said. His ears turned a bit red, but he looked over her head as if Spencer was going to come sweeping out the door behind her. "Have you seen her? We were supposed to meet here around–" He glanced at his wristwatch. "Now, actually."

Alex lifted a shoulder. "She's at home. Working on something or other." Her brow pulled together. "What is this supposed to be, anyway? The third date?"

"Sort of." His lips pursed. "Maybe. Coffee, you know. We've been talking since the other night."

"Looks like things are moving awfully fast if that's how you say hello."

"Yeah…" An awkward look flashed across his face. "Sorry, Alex, really. Can you remind her to check her phone?"

"Sure," she said, trying not to let sympathy creep into her tone. Hopefully, the poor guy knew he was a rebound, and with Toby's whereabouts unknown, he barely stood a chance fighting for Spencer's attention. Props to him for trying, at least. "Yeah, I'll tell her. She's kind of distracted, though."

Wren shifted so his body was angled toward the entrance to the Brew. "Well, it's no big deal. Just tell her I'll see her next time, yeah?"

Alex agreed, and they parted ways.

She wasn't superstitious, but that bad feeling was crawling under her skin again. Kissing Wren had felt wrong, of course, but also in a more significant, other-worldly kind of way as if she'd just accidentally knocked over the first domino in a line of chaos. Call it instinct. Call it paranoia. Things were already going wrong, and she had a feeling that they might get worse.

If only she hadn't tried to fix anything and just taken that damn nap.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello again.**

 **1: I was in a Spanna mood, okay? I don't know.** **And 2: Urgh... If you haven't already guessed, that little accidental kiss is gonna have some big consequences. And those big consequences will have BIGGER consequences, and so on. I've got it all planned out, it's just actually writing it that's a challenge right now. As I said, it's like banging my head against a brick wall. But I'm trying, guys.**


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